The Marked Undead
by Sakura Tsukiyo
Summary: The Lifestream appears and turns to red. It overlaps a few places around the earth and transported them to another world, a world where they meet the ones who had died. "This isn't hell. This is a world in the Lifestream," Zack says.
1. The Red Lifestream

**Disclaimer:** This will be the only time that I will say this. I do not own Final Fantasy VII. The only thing I own are my own characters.

And special thanks to my beta reader: Alexis4.

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Red Lifestream**

Denzel and Marlene ran down the hills together, smiling happily. The breeze blew and the green leaves on the trees fluttered by it. They stopped running and turned around. Cloud and Tifa were taking their time walking. Cloud was carrying two picnic baskets and so did Tifa. Denzel and Marlene ran off again.

"Did you tell everyone where we're meeting today?" Cloud wanted to double check, turning to her and meeting her eyes.

Tifa nodded with a smile. "But… why Rufus?" she asked. Why did Cloud invite him again? Even though Rufus politely declined the invitation why did Cloud mention him? Rufus owned the Shinra Company after all but he wasn't a bad guy or anything.

"Just thought we should," he replied. He felt like he owed Rufus some thanks, despite what the man had created years ago. Other than that, Rufus should come out more often anyway just to get away from his work. Who would not want a break?

The sun was bright with only a few small clouds, and a nice cool breeze. The shades of the trees were great as well. They had to come all the way out here just so they could eat with everyone else. They were miles away from home, but they needed a better environment for the kids. Everyone had agreed to meet up here so there were not any problems.

Cloud had driven Tifa, Marlene, and Denzel there in the truck. As for Cid, he was probably picking up their friends right now. It would take a while for them to get there.

"Cloud!" Marlene cried happily, waving her arm. "Let's take this spot!" Cloud nodded as she ran to him while Denzel stood where he was so the 'spot' would not disappear. Marlene helped Tifa carry one of the baskets and ran back to Denzel. Giggling, Tifa turned and looked at Cloud. He smiled.

The wind picked up and a faint helicopter was heard. They looked up at the sky and saw that it was not a helicopter but Cid's airship, _Shera_, and it grew louder as it lowered to the ground. One of the airship's doors opened and Barret jumped out.

"Hey!" he waved his hand high with a happy laugh. He could not wait until the airship landed because he wanted to see the four of them first and greet them. "How's it goin', Cloud?"

Cloud smiled at him and Marlene quickly ran up to Barret. He bent down and they embraced each other. "And how are you doin', Marlene?" Barret smiled and put her on his shoulder.

The airship landed yards away and Vincent walked down the ramp. Cait was behind him, riding on Red XIII, and then Cid came out as well. Tifa stared at the airship and waited to see if Yuffie also came.

"Has anyone contacted Yuffie?" Vincent inquired when he walked up to the group.

Tifa looked over to him. Her expression changed from hopeful to worried. "No…" she said, concerned.

Tifa and Cloud had not been able to contact Yuffie. She was hoping that Cid and the others would have by now. Even they could not find Yuffie.

Vincent's eyes were on the ground but he looked at his friends to show his unmoved face. "I see…" he turned his back on them. Though Vincent tried not to be as worried as everyone else his voice betrayed the concern he felt. He was worried about Yuffie. Everyone was.

Yuffie went missing right before Vincent returned. She hadn't gotten to see him when he was found after stopping Omega from leaving the planet.

The picnic idea was Marlene's. She wanted to eat with all of Cloud's friends, but Yuffie was still gone. Tifa thought they should wait until they found Yuffie and then eat together. Then Denzel and Marlene thought maybe the two of them would go out and eat together with Cloud and Tifa first, at the very least. Then it somehow it got to invite everyone to come again. Tife imagined Yuffie's furious look but decided to do as the kids wished.

Cloud told Tifa to prepare for their picnic. She pulled out a large cloth and spread it on the green grass with Denzel and Marlene's help.

Vincent felt a sharp pain in his chest and touched it with his right hand. _What's this feeling…?_ He asked himself. He was just thinking about what kind of food Cloud and Tifa had packed but this ache just came suddenly. He was puzzled and looked up at the sky. It was most likely nothing. He shrugged it off.

Avalanche settled around the cloth though Yuffie's absence hung over all of them. Barrett reached for a drumstick.

"Normally I'd say that the brat can take care of herself but I'm startin' to get worried," Barrett said.

"Me too," Cloud admitted. He started to say more when the earth began to shake causing the plastic cups to tumble, spilling their contents onto the checkered cloth.

"What the?!" Barret grabbed Marlene's hand so she would not fall. Tifa held Denzel's. "Since when were there ever earthquakes 'round here?" Barret exclaimed.

"This is the first," Tifa said, looking around. Why is there an unexpected earthquake occurring?

Everyone kept their balance as the quake continued. Cid was worried about his airship and hurried to it, Cait held onto Red XIII tightly, and both Cloud and Vincent tried to stand still. Finally, the shaking subsided.

"Thank god the _Shera's_ alright!" Cid said, relieved.

Up in the sky, they noticed a large green glow. It was the Lifestream. It was coming from different places around them, far away but from their view it seemed as if it was coming from three distinct directions. It was as if it was leaking out of earth and extending towards the sky.

"H-hey, what's happening?" Cait pointed to the glowing object in the sky. "Why is the Lifestream…?" It was strange to see it out in the open. The Lifestream had come out before, but only if the world is in danger.

Cloud stared at the Lifestream, silently. _Did something happen?_ He wondered and wonders if Zack and Aerith were watching from above.

The more the Lifestream expanded the redder it gotten. It colored the sky bright red-orange.

Denzel squeezed Tifa's hand. "Is that normal…?" he questioned. The red glowing stream started to look eerie and it scared him.

"It's alright," Tifa said, smiling to reassure him. She didn't know what was happening but it couldn't be normal. She had never seen anything like it and never heard of anything like it. She stared up at it as it began to bend down back towards earth. It looked as if it was alive and flowed faster towards the group.

Cid gave everyone a nervous look. "H-Hey, shouldn't we…?" he looked back at them and then at the red Lifestream. "Run? That doesn't look safe."

No one had any reaction. They all had no idea what was going on. Cloud looked at Tifa. "Take Denzel and Marlene in Cid's airship," he said, wanting to be on the safe side. "Cid, take them out of here."

Cid and Tifa nodded. Marlene let go of Barret's hand and went to Tifa. She held the two kids' hands and the three of them rushed with Cid. Cait patted on Red XIII and told him to go with Tifa and the others and so the two went off as well.

Vincent stood beside Cloud. "You're getting a bad feeling about this as well?" he questioned.

"Who wouldn't?" Barret sighed heavily, answering for Cloud. "I mean, look at that! It's like that thing knows what it's doin'!"

The red Lifestream then hastened and gathered in the sky only to head straight for everyone in the meadow. Cloud watched as the truck, which he had driven, was swallowed up by the red Lifestream. His motorcycle and weapons were in there. But this is not the time to be worrying about those. The red Lifestream flowed in the direction of the airship.

"Tifa! Marlene! Denzel! Guys!" Cloud shouted. He wanted to dash to them, but then the ground shook again beneath them and more of the red Lifestream appeared. He almost lost his balance but Vincent grabbed his arm to steady him.

Denzel and Marlene had gotten inside and Cid ran quickly to pilot the airship. Cait and Red XIII had already gotten inside as well. Tifa turned back and looked to the three men who had stayed behind. She wanted them aboard the _Shera_. "Guys, get on!" she called, worried what might happen if they remained on the ground too long.

Vincent looked at the red Lifestream as it slowly withdrew, turning to green but then red again and going back and forth to swallow up the group. It was as if it was struggling between the two forces, between the choices of swallowing them or leaving them be. What was going on?

The airship finally started up and began to take off. The door to it was still open and Tifa stood there, waiting for the three guys to jump on, but the earthquake was not really helping, the heaving ground causing them to stumble.

Inside, Cid did not want to abandon them and floated in midair, waiting as well. "Hey, get on already!" his voice came through the loud microphone.

"Just leave!" Cloud told him.

Tifa turned and looked at the red Lifestream. It was no longer turning back to green and it headed straight towards the three on the ground and as it did, the ground crumbled. Cid had no choice but to pull into the sky, even as the red Lifestream blocked the way. He would find a way through it. Tifa's eyes started to get watery and she struggle in thought. She wanted Denzel and Marlene to be safe and everyone else in the airship to be safe. They need to get out of here.

"Hey, Barret," Cloud looked at him. "I need you to take care of the kids for me."

Barret looked back at him with a confused look. The quake made him lose his balance. "Ow…!" he tried to get back up. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Cloud grabbed him and Vincent lent a hand as well. The two of them threw Barret as far as possible to the open door of the airship. He skidded inside to land beside Tifa. He moaned in pain and glared at them. "Is that a way to treat your friend?" he exclaimed. He did not want to leave the two behind like this. It only made him feel bad. "Well, you two hurry over here!"

It was already too late. Just when the red Lifestream engulfed Cloud and Vincent, Tifa jumped out of the airship and ran across crumbling ground towards them. "Cloud! Vincent!" she called, agonized.

"Tifa!" Barret shouted out as the airship lifted into the sky.

Like the waves of the ocean, it pushed her off balance and her body floated.


	2. The Father Wannabe

**Chapter 2: The Father Wannabe**

"Ti… fa… Tifa!"

The familiar voice echoed in her head. She recognized that voice. She drifted towards consciousness. She could feel that he was holding her as he called her name. Finding the strength to open her eyes, she looked up at Cloud. Then she looked at the green sky with an astonished look. She tried to sit up and he helped her.

"Where are we…?" she asked, still looking up at the sky.

"I'm not sure," he replied. He studied the sky as well, which he had already seen and was amazed by. The sky had the color of the Lifestream, almost like heaven. It was bright green. He turned to Tifa and stood up, giving Tifa his hand.

She grabbed it and he pulled her to her feet. She looked around. They were in a forest and small ponds surround them, slightly glowing in emerald color. "…Beautiful…" she murmured.

Cloud nodded in agreement. It was breathtaking all right. The sky seemed to darken as fireflies flitted around. They looked like shimmering snow. "Vincent went to take a look around this area a while ago," Cloud told Tifa, remembering. "He probably will be back soon."

"Vincent?" she turned to Cloud, away from the beauty of nature. Then she recalled the red Lifestream and being push by it and then falling unconscious. "So… there are only the three of us here?"

He nodded. Then he turned around when he heard the familiar footsteps on the tree. Vincent jumped down from the sky and landed in front of them. He stood up and looked at Tifa. "I see you've come around," he said. She nodded with a smile. Vincent turned to Cloud.

"Where are we?" Cloud asked. He had never been to such an appealing area, despite the traveling he'd done before.

Vincent looked away. "I'm not sure," he said.

"What do you mean?" Tifa questioned.

"Take a look around," Vincent turned his attention back to the two. "The forest… the sky… I have never seen such a thing before. This can't be our world."

Cloud wanted to ask Vincent why he would think that, even though he had a point about the sky. Then the shadows under the trees started to move and several figures jumped towards them. The three of them leapt out of the way. Cloud did not have his sword to defend himself. "What are those?" he narrowed his eyes on the shadowy human figures. They all had red glowing eyes.

More of the shadow figures appeared and surrounded the three of them. A few jumped towards Tifa and she had no choice but to punch them. It disappeared the instant she hit it with her fist. They did not seem to have a solid form but they still faded away. One jumped behind her, but Vincent shot it down and it also disappeared. "Thanks," Tifa smiled at him.

Vincent jumped up to a tree branch and aimed his gun at the strange creatures. There were more than he thought and could not shoot them all down. He fired anyway, the more he did, the less there would be. "What are these things…?" he thought out loud. He looked at Cloud and Tifa. She was doing fine but Cloud is not the close-up combat type. Just when he was going to shoot down one that was coming from behind Cloud, one jumped on Vincent's back. "Cloud, behind you!" Vincent warned, struggling with the one on his back. It's teeth pierced his left shoulder.

Cloud spun around. Someone had slashed through the shadowy figure when it was about to attack Cloud.

A surprised voice went, "Eh? It is brother after all."

Cloud looked at the silver haired boy with the double blade katana. "Kadaj?" he was shocked.

Kadaj grabbed his cell phone when it begun ringing. "…There's still some over on the east here," he said, talking to someone over the phone. "The three of us will take care of it."

Tifa was running from the shadowy creatures. There were too many of them for her to handle. Suddenly someone leaped towards her and punched his way in the crowed shadows. He jumped on them and hit them. Tifa stopped in her tracks and looked back to see who had help her. "Hey, aren't you…?"

Loz rose gracefully. "Hey," he greeted with a grin.

Yazoo walked casually across the battle ground and watched Vincent struggle with three of the shadowy figures. Yazoo lifted his left hand, in which he held one of his pistols, and shot the creatures. They disappeared. Vincent turned. He pointed his gun at the man with the long silver hair. His finger squeezed the trigger shooting through the shadows that were coming behind Yazoo.

"What are you three doing in this world?" Yazoo inquired, aiming his gun at the shadows that were coming from his left. "Don't tell me you guys died too and joined us in the Lifestream."

Kadaj put his cell phone away. He grinned and threw one of Cloud's big swords to him. Cloud caught it. "Found it in your motorcycle, few miles from here," Kadaj said.

"Why are you here?" Cloud asked.

"Our father wannabe is west of here," Kadaj pointed, ignoring his question. "You should go and meet up with him." Within a blink, Kadaj jumped down into the space the shadows were coming from. With one smooth strike he took them all out. He looked over his shoulder at Cloud. "Take your friends with you already!" he glared, annoyed by Cloud's questioning expression. "Our father wannabe will explain to you so hurry!"

Cloud, forgetting his questions ran towards Tifa who was talking to Loz. "Tifa! Follow me!" he ran pass her.

"We'll play later," Loz waved to her before turning and knocking down more shadowy creatures.

Tifa glared, not knowing if he was a friend or foe, and ran after Cloud. "Where are we going?" she asked as she punched one of the shadows out of the way.

"I don't really know," he said. Cloud cuts down a couple more down. The shadows he killed the more there seemed to be. He hoped Kadaj and his gang knew how to deal with them. "But let's head west anyway. Vincent!"

Vincent leapt down from the tree and followed the two of them. He fired at the shadows in the front. "Yazoo says we're in the Lifestream," Vincent told them.

"What?!" Tifa looked at him. The three of them jumped over the shadows and kept running. "You mean we're _actually_ dead?"

"Probably," Vincent said, uncertain.

Tifa jumped into the air, her leg swinging out to knock a shadow out of her way. "I can't believe it," she said. "When did we die?"

"Don't assume so easily," Cloud said, slicing the shadow figures away. "Let's just keep going until we get somewhere. Kadaj said to go this way so…"

"You believe what he says?" Tifa asked with disbelief.

Cloud nodded. "It's just a hunch, but they don't look like they are going to hurt us. Otherwise they would have welcomed us in a different approach."

"True…" Tifa figured. She looked around and the shadows had stopped following them. "So, this is how it looks like in the Lifestream?" A world with an emerald sky, with live bugs, and evil looking creatures. It seems like whoever had passed away still had a life here. "I wonder if Aerith…" she trailed off when Cloud and Vincent stopped in their tracks.

They had come across a wooden bridge, with ropes tied at each end. It seemed like it would break if shaken. Vincent looked over his shoulder as he sensed that the shadowy creatures were still coming after them. "You two go on ahead first," he said, preparing to shoot the monsters down.

Cloud looks at Tifa. "You go first. I'll be behind you," he said.

She nodded and walked slowly to see if the bridge would break or not. Then she walked a little faster when she was sure it would be safe. She turned her head to see if Cloud was following her. He took a step and walked behind her. The two of them walked together and made it to the center of the bridge. "Vincent!" Tifa called. "Come on!"

Vincent was standing where they last saw him. He was still holding his gun, listening to the awful cries of the creatures. He could hear Yazoo's gunshots as well. Vincent waved his hand, telling Cloud and Tifa to keep going.

The cry of an eagle echoed in the sky. Cloud and Tifa looked to the left side of the bridge and saw a shadowy bird flying their way. The shadow human creatures caught up with them. They all jumped out towards Vincent and he quickly shot them away. The bird was about the size of two people. It went straight towards the bridge, the side where Vincent was snapping the ropes with its deadly claws. The bridge started to fall.

Vincent heard the flying fiend and quickly jumped to grab the rope to the bridge. He almost fell off the cliff. He struggled to get up on his feet as he pulled the rope tightly to keep the bridge from falling. The bridge tilted sideways. Cloud and Tifa both held onto the rope tightly.

The bird flew around the sky and turned back to attack the couple who were hanging on the bridge.

"Tch," Vincent looks away from the bird when he heard more of the other creatures heading their way. "I thought Kadaj and his friends were going to take care of them." Were there too many of them for just the three of them to handle? Vincent quickly fired away into the forest.

The shadow creatures in the forest were shot by Vincent's bullets and disappeared.

Cloud was prepared to slash the flying creature that was circling him. With his left hand holding tightly onto the rope, he waited. Tifa pulled herself into the air and got up on the single rope, spreading her legs to keep her balance. She risked a glance to see how Vincent was doing. He would not be able to keep shooting the creatures away and holding onto the bridge at the same time. She turned her attention back to the bird. They would have to get off the bridge so they would not burden Vincent with two things at once.

The bird was flying around carefully as Cloud swung his sword at it. Unable to get at Cloud, it then flew towards Vincent who was preventing them from falling. The bird cut off the rope and Vincent lost his grip, almost falling down because of the weight he was pulling. Cloud and Tifa started to fall but still held onto the rope. The bird, satisfied, followed Cloud and Tifa who were falling to the other side of the cliff.

Tifa glared when the bird came closer to them. She jumped towards the bird and struggled into a straddling position on it's back. She held on tightly. The bird crowed angrily and flew into the sky, not giving Tifa a chance to fight back.

Cloud lifted his head and saw the bird flying higher. "Tifa!" he shouted. Cloud was still heading straight to the rocks along side of the cliff. He would get hurt if he did not think fast.

He took his sword and waited until the bridge was about to smash into the rocks. At the right moment, he thrust his sword into the cliff to slow the motion of being pushed to it. The sword embedded deep in the rock face. He hung from his sword, wincing as his back collided with the rocks. He swung himself and stood on the handle of his sword. It was too bad this sword does not have another one inside it. He could have used it for this kind of situation. Kadaj had given him his least favorite for this.

Tifa then thought of something to get rid of the bird. Since the shadow figures disappeared if they feel pain… Her arms were around the bird's neck and she started to squeeze it as hard as she could. The bird flapped its wings, crying out. After another moment of struggle, it disappeared.

"Great…" she mumbled under her breath. She was falling from the air, right in the between the two cliffs, facing down to it. She should have waited until the bird was over the land, but then again the ground at the bottom of the cliffs did not look too far. She would survive the fall, at the very least.

As Tifa fell past Vincent and then Cloud, she twisted so she faced away from the ground. She saw Cloud jumping off and falling towards her.

"Tifa!" he reached his hand to her.

"Isn't there another way instead of falling after me?" she asked, half smiling. Some of her hair caught in her mouth. "Judging by the look of the fall, it shouldn't be fatal."

Cloud did not smile. She grabbed his hand and held it firmly. "I know," he said. But he was worried about her. He knew she is capable of surviving but he jumped after her anyway. "Then again, maybe not… there's still more of those _things_ down there."

Tifa looked around and then both of them looked down. There were more birds of the same kind flying up towards them, mouths open wide to tear them to shreds.

A beam of light shot down pass the two and down to the shadows. When the light hit them, all of them disappeared. "Hey! Cloud! Tifa!" a familiar voice called happily.

Cloud and Tifa eyes shifted towards the voice. They were surprise to see who it was and could not believe their eyes as a few glowing white feathers fell around them.

Angeal was holding Zack's hand, flying down to the couple. Lazard was right behind them. Zack grabbed Tifa's hand and Lazard grabbed Cloud. They all flew back up and landed where Vincent was. The shadow human figures had disappeared. Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were waiting with Vincent.

"You two were heavy," Angeal said, his white wing disappearing. "Really, Zack, did I have to carry you out here to meet with Cloud."

Zack laughed and patted on Angeal's shoulder. "Of course! When I heard my son telling me that Cloud and Tifa were here, I had to go and see them!"

Cloud and Tifa looked at each other. They were really confused. Were they really dead? These were people they knew were dead! Was it true that this is not their world anymore?

"We're not your sons," Kadaj pointed out, giving him a flat look. "Stop being a father wannabe."

Zack laughed cheerfully, enjoying himself.

Angeal looked at his other clone. "Will you go and make sure that there aren't any more around?" he requested. Lazard nodded and flapped his wing, flying away. Angeal looked at the three silver haired guys. "And you guys?"

"We'll be glad to," Kadaj said, walking away. Yazoo and Loz followed him. Without saying anything. The three of them just wanted to get away from their father wannabe. Hunting down those creatures was more exciting after all.

Cloud looked at Angeal and then at Zack. "Are we… really dead?" he asked. It was the only thing he could ask, shocked to see Zack. Though, he had seen Zack once before after the incident with Sephiroth's remnants months ago.

Zack smiled and said, "Don't worry. This isn't hell. This is a world in the Lifestream."


	3. The Dead Chrysanthemum

**Chapter 3: The Dead Chrysanthemum**

Zack smiled and said, "Don't worry. This isn't hell. This is a world in the Lifestream."

"That's not what we really want to know," Tifa said, confused. "We're really dead…?"

Zack looked over to Angeal and Angeal sighed. "That might be the case since the three of you are here," Angeal started. "In fact, some things have _just_ gotten bizarre around here. Those shadows…"

"They attack people who appeared in that odd red Lifestream," Zack said, crossing his arms. He was serious now. "They haven't attack Angeal, Lazard, my sons, and I, but if we get in their way, they do attack. It's strange that they only target you guys so far."

"The red Lifestream…?" Tifa remembered. "So it appeared on this side too then?"

Zack nodded. "Did it appear in your world too?"

"Yeah," Cloud said.

Cloud quickly gave a brief summary of what had happened when he and everyone were going to have a picnic together. Zack and Angeal looked at each other. They did not know what to think of that but there was also an earthquake in the Lifestream world as well, which had never happened before.

"That _is_ odd," Zack rubbed his chin, thinking. "After the red Lifestream vanished, Sephiroth and Genesis also appeared in this world, but the even weirder thing is…"

"Sephiroth?!" Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent yelled.

Zack shook his head. "Don't be shocked. This is the old Sephiroth we're talking about. And Genensis… I'm sure he was still alive the last time that I saw him so I don't know why he's here as well. Right now, the two of them are with Aerith, protecting her if anything happens while we're out stopping those… shadowy… monster thingies."

"The old Sephiroth?" Tifa blinked. She thinks back to the days when she was Zack's and Sephiroth's tour guide. "So… it's not the Sephiroth who wants to conquer the world now? Is that what you're saying?"

"It's shocking, yes," Angeal said. He still could not believe it himself after knowing what Sephiroth had done over on the other side of the world. It all just happened too suddenly. "Oh, sorry for the late introduction. My name is Angeal Hewley. The other one just now, who look like me, is Lazard Deusericus." He looked at Vincent and then at Tifa.

Tifa smiled, "I'm Tifa Lockheart."

Vincent nodded, acknowledging Angeal. "Vincent Valentine."

Zack smiled brightly. "Hey, want to go and meet Sephiroth and Genesis? Aerith is making us dinner tonight."

Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent were uncertain about Sephiroth. Genesis was not a problem, since Tifa and Vincent did not know him, but Sephiroth? It seemed suspicious since Zack said that Sephiroth appeared when the red Lifestream disappeared. What if Sephiroth was planning something and was only acting like the man he used to be? How does Zack know for sure?

The most important question was why was Sephiroth alive? No. He did not join the Lifestream. So why is he here?

"Don't give me that look, guys," Zack chuckled, putting his arm around Cloud's neck. "Seriously, this is the Sephiroth who we know and cared for! You'll see if you meet him in person. I mean, he remembers the things he's done, but something changed him."

Tifa smiled nervously. "Still kind of hard to believe," she said. "There has to be something behind his motives. And you say that Aerith is with them? Sephiroth… I mean… he did kill her before, you know?"

Zack smiled. "We were all cautious about that too. But, really, this isn't the Sephiroth who is all evil-like. He's definitely the old Sephiroth! He even has the same hairstyle from years ago. You know, his bangs reaching to his chin."

"This conversation isn't going to get anywhere," Vincent said. He wanted to note this because it really was unbelievable. The questions about Sephiroth would continue and before they know it, it would already be time for bed. He wanted to leave here as soon as possible.

Angeal sighed again. "Sephiroth… he had helped some people who appeared out of the red Lifestream as well. He wouldn't have done that, now would he?" Everyone fell silent. Angeal turns around and looked at the other side of the bridge. "We'll talk about this matter once we get something to eat. I'll carry you all one by one across to the other side of the cliff."

Cloud looked at the ground. _Sephiroth…_ He thought. _Did he really have a change of heart?_ Even Aerith was willing to be around Sephiroth. The man who killed her, she was making dinner for everyone and him. Perhaps Sephiroth did change. Aerith would know for sure if she let Sephiroth around her like Zack had mention.

"Alright," Cloud said, looking at Zack. "I'd like to see the old Sephiroth."

Zack smiled at him. Vincent and Tifa looked at Cloud. He was serious and curious about Sephiroth. It's not like they could refuse Zack's offer anyway. This is the world of the Lifestream after all. They would not be able to tell where they were going.

"What about Sephiroth's remnants?" Vincent asked, not that he was worried about them though. He was only curious.

"Lazard would be with them," Zack assured. "Well then, let's go!"

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

"Would you two help me serve the dishes?" Aerith smiled, walking around the kitchen preparing for dinner.

She had worked to prepare dinner for more than two hours. There were a lot of people from the other world who did not have homes in this one so Aerith decided it would be easier if they ate outside. Tables had been already set out by Sephiroth and Genesis. Aerith wondered if the people all had died in some kind of war in the other world but she didn't want to ask about it. She had to make sure they survived in this world.

Sephiroth and Genesis were in the kitchen with her. Neither of them wanted to serve the dishes outside. They would feel weird doing it.

Genesis looked at Sephiroth for a moment and grinned. "Sure," he agreed. "It's not like it's too hard. Right, Sephiroth?"

"Humph," Sephiroth offered a tiny grin. He really was not going to do it. Sephiroth heard knocking at the front door, which should be open. He went to take a look. A young woman stood there, unhappy. "What do you want?" he walked up to her.

She had short red hair in low pigtails. Half of her face was cover in her long pale violet muffler. She wore a white leather tunic, pale violet long gloves, pale violet leather belt, black pants, and pale violet and yellow scale leggings, which reached to her knees. She had piercing green eyes and it made her look like she would snap at any second.

"…Never mind," she said, turning away. Her stomach started to growled from hunger. She rushed out of his sight, embarrassed.

"Did you just scare someone off with that face of yours?" Aerith walked by him, carrying a large bowl of rice.

Sephiroth chuckle lightly, turning to her. "I don't think so," he said. He looked behind him and Genesis was carrying many plates. "Make sure you don't drop those, hero," he remarked.

"I won't," Genesis grinned.

Aerith stopped walking and Genesis almost bumped into her. She turned to Sephiroth. "Can you go out and make sure there aren't any of those creatures around anymore?" she asked, worried that they would attack again.

Sephiroth walks away and stepped outside. Aerith figured that was a 'yes' from him. Genesis seemed unhappy. He probably wanted a more hero-like job than to be serving dishes, but he did not say anything about it. She smiled, thinking that having them around would be fun.

She placed the rice bowl on one of the tables. The phone rang inside the house and Aerith hurried to get it as Genesis set the tables. Aerith entered the kitchen and picked up the phone. "Hello, Aerith here," she said. She paused for a moment and smiled with a light giggle. "Don't worry, there's enough for Cloud and the others."

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

Tifa helped Cloud bandage Vincent's left shoulder where he was bitten by the strange shadows. The bite mark was just as large as a human mouth. It was bleeding, but not serious. After that, they followed Zack and Angeal through another forest.

Vincent was walking behind the group as Zack chattered on about the world in the Lifestream. He said none of the cities and towns had a name so the people here just gave all of them names themselves. Even the lakes, rivers, oceans, and mountains had been given names. Over population wasn't a concern because the Lifestream was infinite. Some didn't want to be reborn. They didn't want to return to the other world to feel pain and sadness.

The place they were heading was called Firefly Light Village. It got its name from the fireflies that lived in the area. The bugs only came out during dawn and dusk. They were going to have dinner after the bugs had flown away.

"I totally forgot!" Zack stopped walking with the group and turned to Vincent. "You must be Vincent Valentine. Aerith mentioned you a couple of times. I'm Zack Fair," Zack knew some of Vincent's history and felt rather troubled by it.

He felt that way because it must have been hard for Vincent. He was another victim of the Hojo's horrible experiments. Now that he thought about it… Was it really Vincent inside the coffin, snoring, at the time?

Vincent nodded, "Pleased to meet you, Zack."

"Then that makes all of us acquaintances!" Zack grinned, walking along the group again. He went to catch up with Angeal.

Tifa smiled. She was walking beside Cloud. He was carrying his sword. When she turned to him, he did not look happy. "Cloud?" she bent down a little bit to look at his face. He looked at her. "Is there something wrong?"

He forced a smile. "I'm fine," he told her. She did not believe him. He looked away. "It's nothing really."

"Is it about Aerith?" she asked. He fell silent. She smiled. "What, are you shy about seeing her again?"

Cloud looked at her. He had come to terms with the guilt he felt over the Ancient's death. Ever since the day he'd seen Aerith after the battle with Sephiroth's remnants, he knew that Aerith had never blamed him. He knew that he wasn't alone anymore. Yet, something was bothering him. He was not sure what it was though.

"It'll be like the old times," Tifa said, nodded. She walked backwards in front of him. "You know what I mean? So don't give her a gloomy face when we see her, okay?"

He smiled this time. "Right…" he said. He wondered how Tifa could still feel energetic about this. "Are you excited about seeing Aerith?" he asked.

She nodded again. "Of course I am. It has been a while since we last saw each other. Since we're in this world, she has a physical body. I can hug her and tell her how much I'm thankful for her being with us after all this time."

They took their time walking. The fireflies were no longer around and Zack found it strange. He glanced up at the sky. The sky had not darkened and the bugs always hung around a little bit longer than this. They had their own routine of coming around and going away. Zack knew this for sure because he had kept track of almost everything around him.

A loud explosion rocked the forest floor, followed by loud voices of people. The black smoke darkened the skies in front of them, not too far from where they were.

Zack gasped and started to run. "That's where Aerith and the others are!" he said. Everyone started to run as well. "Angeal! Would you mind going first?" Zack asked.

"Alright," Angeal nodded. His white wing appeared on his right and he quickly flew off, already near to where the smoke was coming from.

He viewed the small village from the air. People were running around and Aerith was telling them to calm down, urging them to take shelter inside the house. Sephiroth and Genensis were fighting the humanoid shadows creatures again. Angeal then noticed another person who was aiding the people. She had red hair in low pigtails. She threw small bombs at the monsters and it caused a big blast.

"Angeal!" Genesis saw him as he landed on the ground. "Are Zack and the others here?"

"Lazard and the kids are still far off from here," Angeal told him, his right hand glowing with light. He shot a beam of light towards the creatures and they disappeared but more quickly replaced them. "But we have Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent. Zack is coming with them right now."

Genesis grinned, lifting his sword in the air when one of the shadows jumped at him. The sword stabbed into the shadow, causing it to disappear. "Cloud, huh?" he thought out loud.

Angeal heard another explosion and turned to the girl with the red hair. "Stop that," he told her. He knows that she is helping them but blasting things would only damage the environment.

"I know where I'm throwing," she snapped at him. She walked up to him with a glare, putting her hands on her hips. "Can't you see that I'm helping out here? There are only three of you."

The monsters were going to go into the house to look for the people. Sephiroth slashed through them. He leapt into the air and down into the shadows who were crowding under the shadows of the trees. "Stop talking and keep fighting," Sephiroth said, looking back at Angeal, Genesis, and the girl.

"The name's Theris," the red haired girl said, introducing herself. She spun away and lifted her right hand to her eye level. Her hand glowed brightly and faded away. She now held a bomb. She threw it towards the incoming monsters. It blasted them away, shaking the ground a little.

"My, my," Genesis grinned. His sword burned in flames. He was ready to attack. "Theris is so aggressive."

Angeal looked at Theris. _How did she do that?_ He's referring to her bomb that she created out of nowhere. He did not want to ask her about it and turned his attention to the creatures that lurked around him.

Sephiroth heard a child's cry. He listened carefully and followed the child's voice. Beyond the trees, he saw a boy with dark brown hair. One of the creatures spotted the boy as well and leapt towards the defenseless child. Sephiroth sprinted across the clearing and thrust his katana into the monster.

"Sephiroth!"

He turned around and saw Cloud jumping towards him, the big sword in his hand. Cloud slashed at Sephiroth and he blocked it with Masamune. They looked at each other, gripping their weapons tightly as the blades pressed against each other. Sephiroth and Cloud felt another shadow coming at them. Sephiroth pushed Cloud away and waved his katana to his left. Masamune slashed through a shadow that had been aiming for Cloud. Sephiroth turned to Cloud with no expression. Then he walked away to help the boy.

Cloud stared at Sephiroth. He did not seem like the other Sephiroth. So it was true. The old Sephiroth would not have saved him nor would he have walked away from their battle.

"Sorry," Cloud said, moving his sword away. Sephiroth turned back to him. Cloud had thought Sephiroth was going to kill the little boy. Just now. He had not seen the shadow Sephiroth had been aiming for and thought that the former general had been attacking the child. "Just a little misunderstanding," Cloud said.

Sephiroth knew Cloud had thought that he was going to murder the little boy. Not that he could blame Cloud. Sephiroth knew the terrible things he had done and wondered what he was doing here. He did not feel the urge to bring the world to its destruction. His mind clouded with questions. But he did not want to be bothered by those useless thoughts. Sephiroth nodded at Cloud, "I assumed that it was a misunderstanding."

Upon hearing Genesis, Cloud turns around. He was not sure if Genesis had changed or not. He had not known Genesis well and his impressions of the man while suffering from mako poisoning were blurry. Genesis still looked like Genesis, if he remembered correctly.

Tifa punched her way through the crowed of shadows and saw Aerith. She was guarding the house where the people were chattering with fear. "Aerith!" Tifa smiled.

Aerith heard her voice and turned to her. "Tifa…!"

Vincent was being followed by some shadows. He ran up the tree and a couple crashed into the tree. He fired his gun at them and they disappeared. He landed on his feet and turned around to find more of them. He saw a figure running away from the battle. Thinking it could be one of those monsters and wondering if they were trying to hide something, he chased after it.

Zack swung his sword at the monster after another monster. "They just keep coming!" he smiled a little bit but then glared. More and more were surrounding them. "At this rate…!"

Vincent caught up with the running figure, jumping right in front of it. The person in the black ragged cloak with a large hood fell backwards, gasping for air. Vincent looked at the small person and asked, "Who are you? Are you with the people here? Or… are you an enemy?"

The person did not reply and slowly stood up. Vincent pointed his gun at the person. He notices the skin color on the person's skin. Though the sky was green and only showed green light, he could tell it was gray. The person's lips looked more like a girl's.

She touched the hood to make sure he would not see her face. She turned away and ran off.

He was not sure if she was a villager, but followed her anyway. "Wait!" he called. More shadows appeared before him and he stopped running. _Who was that?_ He thought, getting his gun ready for another battle.

The sky turned red. Sephiroth looked up at the sky. He saw a red glowing red Lifestream appearing right next to him on his left. All of the shadow figures stopped moving, withdrawing from the battle and standing back. Cloud and the others gathered. They were confused about what was going on. The attack just stopped. Vincent had returned as well, but Theris was not in sight.

A young girl appeared in the red Lifestream and the red glowing light disappeared. She stared up at Sephiroth with her bright pink eyes. She had white hair that reached to her neck, her bangs covering her right eye. On her upper body, she wore a dark red-pink light metal armor with metal braces on her arms of the same color. Around her waist was a heavy brown belt. Her long dark red-pink skirt covers her left leg and a little bit on the right one. Around her right thigh is a little red-orange pouch. Her metal knee boots are dark red-pink too. She wore a dark red-pink metal choker and red lipstick. The wind started to come around and blew her bangs that covered her right eye. She had a red mark over her right eye, over her eyebrows down to her cheek.

She turned her look away from Sephiroth and observed around the shadows. "Return," she ordered. The instant she did, all of them vanished.

Zack looked at the dead-looking girl. She was still looking around, searching for something. "Are you the one who… summoned those monsters?" he asked, gripping his sword tightly. Otherwise how had she been able to make them go away?

She looked at Zack. "No," she said with no expression. "It must have been her. She only just began learning what she is." She looks around again. "It doesn't seem like she's here either."

"Who are you?" Sephiroth, who stood right beside her, asked.

The young lady looked up at him. She blinked once, her expression still emotionless. "…Chrysanthemum," she replied. "Oh wait, that would be too long to say when one needs to cry out my name. Just call me Kiku."

"Chrysanthemum…?" Sephiroth closed his eyes, assumed. "A flower that symbolizes purity?" His eyes opened and he stared at her for a moment. "Your appearance doesn't seem to match your name."

"Aren't you knowledgeable, but is that your way to flirt with the ladies?" Kiku chuckled, slightly turning her head with a smile.

Her expression changed. She seemed like a normal girl with a pleasant smile on her face. Or so he thinks.

Sephiroth smirked, "I wasn't _flirting_."

The others were silent, surprised by the turn the conversation had taken.

"Then you're saying I look ugly?" she looked back at him. Her smile was still on her face. Before he said anything she went on. "I guess I have to agree with you. I look dead, don't I? I'm nothing near _purity_."

"Don't talk about yourself like that," he said with a sarcastic tone. She grinned at him. To his surprise, she did not feel mocked but he did not show his expression to her reaction. Or maybe she did not hear his sarcastic voice. "So, what are you planning to do here?" he questioned, getting right to the point.

Kiku walked away. "I'm not planning anything yet. I'm just looking for the new member who had wandered off," she said. "Sorry for the trouble that she caused you."

"…Yet?" Angeal narrowed his eyes at her.

"Then what were those things that your 'new' member had summoned?" Zack asked, more like demanding though.

Kiku sighed, feeling tired. "Zetsumei. They eat beings that are not from this world. So do your best trying to protect the ones who are from the other world."

Just when Zack was going to ask for more information, her body turned into the red Lifestream and disappeared.

Cloud looked around to check for more signs of threat. He relaxed a little and looked at Zack. "Zetsumei?" he wondered out loud. "They eat beings… that are not from this world. The Lifestream."

Vincent recalled when one had bitten him. The creatures had been trying to eat him? The others looked at him as well. "That would mean we're not dead yet," he said.

"Those shadows, Zetsumei…" Tifa reminisced. "Vincent's right. He was bitten before. Those monsters were going to eat him, if that was what they were trying to do. Then that really would only mean…"

"We're alive, but are stuck in the Lifestream," Cloud finished the sentence. He looked at Zack to hear what he thinks.

Zack glared at the sky. It turned back to green again. "It seems we have something serious to take care of in this world as well," he said. Then he smiled and looked at everyone. "Well, anyone hungry?"


	4. The Headband

Author's Note (from May 6, 2009):

To the readers who have been reading this story, I have found a wonderful beta reader: **Alexis4**. The first three chapters has been corrected, but you don't have to go back and read them all over again. From now on, the rest of the chapters will be read before putting them up. Although, I made changes in chapter 1... So to my only reviewer, **imaginedreams22**, I took out about the info on Yuffie because the first chapter is supposed to be about the red Lifestream. The thing about Yuffie was too much in the beginning so I took it out. You'll see it again in chapter 8, with some little changes to it so don't get confuse about it when the time comes. XD

Thanks for your reviews that you have taken the time to write them!

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Chapter 4: The Headband**

The girl in the black cloak ran out of the forest and tripped after running too much. She breathed heavily for air and sat up. "Man…" she rubbed her forehead, which had hit the ground when she fell.

"Where do you think you're going, Yuffie?" an emotionless voice asked.

Yuffie jumped and quickly stood up. She turned and looked at the disappointed Kiku. "Ah! Chrysanthemum Kiku! Uh… I…" Yuffie played with her fingers, eyes looking away from Kiku's stare.

"Why did you call the Zetsumei for?" Kiku inquired, crossing her arms.

"I couldn't control it," Yuffie protested, removing her hood. Her short hair is white and her eyes are bright pink. She had gray skin, but her right eye had a darker gray mark over it. She was not wearing her headband. "I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't listen to me. Then when they saw the people in that little village… they couldn't stop coming all at once! I… They wouldn't listen so I… I ran all the way out here!"

Kiku sighed. "I guess I understand, since you're still a rookie."

Yuffie nodded. "Uh-huh, that's right!"

"But you must remember who and what you are," Kiku narrowed her eyes at her. "You're an Undead. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be 'alive' and walking around like you are right now."

She nodded slowly. "I know… but… I saw my friends… Are they dead? Why are they in the Lifestream?"

"That information is not neccessary for someone like you to know," she said, tilting her head to the side, glaring at Yuffie. "From now on, don't leave Devi's side. She will aid you through our plans." She walked past Yuffie, who was silent. "Come on. We have some other important stuff to take care of."

Yuffie bit her lower lip, feeling powerless. She took a deep breath and jumped on Kiku's back. "I'm tired! Will you carry me back, then?" she asked, smiling.

Kiku's vein appeared. The longer Yuffie had her arms around her neck, the more the vein enlarged. She forcefully pulled herself away from Yuffie. "Don't do that again!" she said.

She laughed and pulled her arm. "Aw, come on!"

"No!" Kiku rushed away. Yuffie pouted and followed her. She tripped again. Kiku turned to look at her. "…" she glared at her for being such a klutz. "It's not like we're going to walk all the way back."

Yuffie struggled to get on her feet. Her head started to hurt. Faint memories were coming to her mind but all was too dark to know what they were. She remembered noticing Aerith, but she did not remember Aerith's name. All she knew was that she was Aerith's friend. She remembered seeing Vincent when he was running after her. In her heart, she knew these people were her friends but no names or memories would come to support that instinctive knowledge. She wanted to remember her friends. Her thoughts started to cloud up and she fell back down on the ground.

Kiku walked to her and kneeled down. Yuffie was unconscious. "The past…" Kiku sighed. "…is something you must forget as an Undead… Yuffie Kisaragi."

Pitying her, Kiku touched her right eye. The same red Lifestream glowed out of her eyes and she grasped the little glow in her hand. She held it in front of her and softly blew it over Yuffie's body. The red Lifestream covered over her body and then disappeared.

"That should help you to stop thinking about your past for a long while."

Kiku stood back up and looked back at the forest. "…What's bothering me so much?" she asked herself. She could feel a familiar energy all the way from the Firefly Light Village. It just started calling out to her. Her right eye started to feel very warm and she covered it. "I should go back and check again…"

She looked at Yuffie. She would go back after Yuffie woke up.

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

Dinner was over. Tifa and Aerith were doing the dishes as the some of the guys sat in the living-like room. Kadaj, Yazoo, Loz, and Lazard came in time for dinner and were now outside, doing their own things. The people had gone to sleep after eating, but some helped out with the dishes as well. Sephiroth and Vincent went somewhere else, but no one ask about them.

Theris walked towards the village. She heard the voices of men ahead of her. One asked, "Hey, who are you?"

She looked up and saw the three guys who all had silver hair. She sighed, feeling crappy. Ignoring them, she walked the other way. Then she was stopped as the bigger man with the short hair jumped in front her.

"Want me to blow up your head?" she glared.

"There are a lot of strange things going on around here," Loz grinned. "We asked you kindly already. We're just making sure you're an ally."

"I'm not," she said. She pushed him with her arm, walking away. "Go back to your stupid mom and ask her how to approach people with kinder smiles."

"Hey!" Loz grabbed her shoulder. "Don't talk about my mother like that!"

She moved away from his reach, giving him a death glare. "And learn not to touch a lady!" she angrily said, pissed. "Your stupid mom didn't teach you anything? Huh?!"

Kadaj and Yazoo walked by Loz, irritated by her way of talking. "I won't forgive you if you keep badmouthing our mother," Yazoo returned the glare.

"Oh, three men against one little girl," Theris let out a laugh. She glared at him, her hand glowing and a bomb appeared in her hand. "I'll teach you three something that your dumbass mother didn't."

Kadaj raised his double blade katana to her face but she did not move. "Keep talking and I will kill you," he warned.

Loz was nearly crying but held back his tears. "Yeah, what he said!" he showed her his fist.

Theris felt her temper rising. She had come back from her little business and was depressed and stressed. Now these boys were only piling up her anger. She grinned. "Fine. I'll relieve some my anxiety on you three." A fire was lit on the bomb and she did not throw it.

"H-Hey!!" Loz backed away, as well as the other two. Was she just going to die with the three of them like this? What an insane girl! More importantly, how did she get that bomb?

"Time for a big blast!" she laughed evilly, entertaining her self. The guys were stupid enough to back away so fast because she could keep the bomb from exploding until she wanted it to. She only made it look like she wanted to die with them, but waited until they move away so she could throw it. She eyed Loz and threw it towards him.

A gunshot fired in the air. The bullet had hit the bomb before hitting Loz and not harming any of the foursome. They heard a sigh and turned to it. It was Vincent. His put Cerberus aside and he looked disapprovingly at the hotheaded girl who was throwing her temper around. "This isn't the place for a fight," Vincent said, narrowing his eyes.

Theris spat to her left and glared at Vincent. "You shouldn't butt into fights, spooky cape," she said. She held her hand up and a glow came out of her hand. She was really going to start a fight. All these men were annoying her.

Tifa, Cloud, Zack, and Angeal stepped out of the house. "What are my sons doing?" Zack questioned. If they were going to start a fight in this village, he would not allow it. The people around them were talking loudly after hearing the explosion a minute ago.

"Shut up about that already, you father wannabe!" Kadaj said, waving his katana around as a warning.

Theris calmed a bit after seeing Zack and the glow in her hand disappeared. "They started it…." she said. If she knew the three guys' father was Zack, she would not have just snapped like that. She met Zack when the three boys were not around so of course she did not know. "But I am sorry about throwing a bomb at one of your sons." She paused. _Wait… his sons? How old is he?_ She thought mentally.

Zack smiled and waved at her. "That's quite all right. They'll survive anyway."

She walks up to him. "So, the three them are your children…?" she asked. He nodded. "…You must have been very young when you had them…"

"We're not related to him in any way!" Kadaj said, furiously pointing his katana at Zack. He quickly walks up to Zack but when he saw Aerith, he hid his katana and smiled at his mother.

Aerith smiled at the group. "The night gets pretty cold around here. You all better come inside."

"That is, IF there is enough room," Genesis walked from behind Aerith, grinning. "This building is an inn, a poor one, and there are about six beds in each room."

"I'll share the same room as Zack," Theris raised her hand in the air.

Vincent noticed what Theris is holding. A strip of black and white cloth. "What is that in your hand?" he asked. It looked like Yuffie's headband.

Theris unfold her hand that held the headband. She glanced at Vincent with a calm face, or trying to look natural anyway. "Nothing really," she replied. "Why?"

"Isn't that Yuffie's?" Tifa wondered out loud. She walked up to Theris. "Hey, it is Yuffie's."

"Do you guys know her?" Theris asked, surprised. She looked at them and a few nodded. "Where is she?"

"That's what we want to know," Cloud said. "Where did you get that?"

Theris held it up in to her eye level. "I found it during all that fighting with the monsters. I notice a figure running away and I tried to follow it…" She turned to Vincent. "You were following that person in black too, right? I chased it after you did, but I couldn't keep up with them."

Vincent was not sure. He recalled the gray skin the person had who wore the black cloak. Was Theris saying that person could have been Yuffie? Not that Theris knew about the gray skin. He thought about the girl who called herself Chrysanthemum. Yuffie and Kiku. They had gray skin. Did that mean the two of them are related?

"That could only mean that Yuffie was here," Cloud said.

"But, where is she?" Tifa looked at cloud, sounding concerned. "How did she get here in the first place? The same way as us?"

"I haven't seen Yuffie around here though," Zack said. He remembered her when he first met her in the Wutai Temple. She was an upbeat young girl.

Aerith started to worry. "I haven't seen her around here either, but if she had then she would have come out and see me at least. That's the Yuffie I know." She looks at Cloud and then at Tifa. "What could have happen to her?"

"So… you all are her precious friends…" Theris said, bitterly. "Such loving family she's with."

"How do you know her?" Vincent inquired.

Theris grinned but her face showed she was displeased. "Just a childhood friend that she left behind," she said. "…I'm going to sleep!" She stomped her way inside the building, passing Aerith and Genesis. "Where's Zack's room?"

Sephiroth sat on the roof of the same building but out of sight of the others He heard everyone going inside to get their sleep. It became quiet.

He had heard them talk about Yuffie but did not wonder too much about it. Yuffie's disappearance must have something to do with Kiku though. Then he recalls Kiku's red mark over her right eye. That mark is giving him a bad feeling and bad feelings have a habit of being right.

"Sephiroth!" Zack called from the back door. "Make sure you get some sleep!" Zack chuckled when he heard Sephiroth sighing. Zack felt like he was becoming more like the father of the group. Only if Sephiroth's remnants started calling him 'father' he would totally feel like one. Zack walked back inside the house.

Everyone had already gone to their rooms so he turned off the lights. He walked down the hall and then up the stairs. He entered one of the rooms.

There are three beds on one side of the wall and the other three on the opposite side. Zack's bed was the furthest to the back on the right. On the right side, the middle was Theris and then Aerith. On the left side, across from Zack's bed was Cloud. The middle of the left side was Tifa and the last one was Vincent.

Zack looked at Aerith, who was getting ready to get in bed. Cloud had already lain on his back over the bed and blanket, his arms under his head. Tifa only sat on her bed, looking at Theris with a questioning expression. Vincent also wore the same expression but Theris covered her head with the blanket. Her long pale violet muffler was hanging above her on a little hook.

"Um, Theris, was it?" Tifa smiled.

"I don't want to talk about Yuffie right now," Theris said, pissed again. "That girl never came to see me when I asked her to."

"But she hasn't been heard from for more than a month," Tifa told her.

Theris quickly sat up, uncovering herself. "What, really?" she asked. "More than a month? What happen to her?"

"Wait," Vincent said. "You called her? When was that?"

She looked at Vincent. She thought back. "I don't exactly remember… it was more than a month ago… which would explain why I never saw her when I was waiting. She'd probably gone missing along the way and…"

Zack smiled, "Sounds like we've got a clue about Yuffie, huh?" Everyone looked at him. He was still smiling. They do not really get his point when it was already oblivious. "Just trying to lighten up the mood," he grinned, walking over to his bed.

"What did you call her about?" Vincent questioned Theris.

Theris's hand glowed and that alerted everyone. "Relax," she gave them a flat look. They thought she was going to attack them for no reason. A little bright marble appeared in her hand and she put it between her fingers, showing it to them.

They all leaned forward and sideways to take a better look at the little clear ball.

"Some bad guys were trying to get their hands on these babies," Theris said. "I have collected most of them myself. I planned to go and steal more from them. I knew Yuffie liked these sorts of things, especially when it comes to seeing evil men using them for their own satisfaction. It was one of the only ways to see her again so I called her. We've only talked a few times through text messages before…"

"Mako Energy?" Cloud looked at the little marble.

She slightly nodded. "Maybe. Some call these Image Weapon," she explained. "It's almost like those orbs thingy that you use. You know, those crystal balls that Yuffie likes to hunt for." The bright marble disappeared. "But it doesn't contain anything with the elements. For example, summoning fire as you attack. This Image Weapon… if you think of a weapon, it will appear in your hand. Like making a wish and it actually comes true. It's very convenient in battles."

"So that's how you got that bomb out of no where," Loz came to the door, leaning against it. Yazoo and Kadaj were behind him.

"Why aren't you boys in bed?" Theris glared at the three.

"Do you care about Yuffie?" Vincent asked, not wanting to change the subject. He noticed that Theris looked upset about Yuffie. He also wanted to clarify why she would want to call Yuffie when she could take care of those 'evil' guys herself in first place.

Theris looked at him, silent. "…Kind of. I just miss having her around for a long time, but she got busier after meeting some new friends, which I assume it's you guys," she said. She'd grown to hate Yuffie, but her childhood memories still remained. "I'm just selfish when it comes to friends. Like… I want to be the only one who is loved and the only best friend she will ever need… That's all."

Loz snorted.

Theris summoned a staff and enlarged the length of the weapon. At first, the three boys thought she was going to hit them, but she only used it to close the door on them, slamming it shut right in their faces.

The weapon disappeared and she lay back down. "Let's talk later in the morning," she growled angrily. She covered the blanket over her head again. Closing her eyes to get to sleep, she still held the headband in her hand.


	5. The Plan

**Chapter 5: The Plan**

Tifa opened her eyes slowly when the green light shone through the window on her face. She sat up, swinging her legs off the bed. She rubbed her eyes gently and took a good look around the room.

No one else was in the room.

She looked over to the window where the chattering from outside was from. Loud noises were coming from down stairs too. Tifa stood up and went to find the bathroom. She took her time washing up and headed down the stairs.

"S-Stop crying!" Theris angrily glared at Loz. The two of them were standing facing each other with the wooden rectangular table between them.

Tifa enter the kitchen and was startled when Theris shouted suddenly. She looked at Theris, who looking at Loz nervously. Loz really was crying, only with little tears though. Aerith was also in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for all of the people there who were not from this world.

"What happened…?" Tifa whispered when she walked up to Aerith.

Aerith whispered back, "Well… Loz wanted to help me make breakfast… then Theris was telling him that he shouldn't act like a good child… it got to a point where they were arguing that he _is_ a good son who only wants to help his mother… she started to call him a baby… she called him other names… then he just started to…"

"I see…" Tifa nodded, her face expressionless. She did not know what to think of Loz now. She was surprised that she did not hear this loud uproar when she was coming down the stairs just a moment ago.

Loz began sniffing and Theris was having a nervous break down about it. "I told you to stop crying!" she said again. "God, I can't _deal_ with crying men!" She slammed her fist on the table. Loz had stop crying but still had a sad look in his eyes. Theris glared at him with a light blush of embarrassment, but settled down now that he wasn't crying anymore.

With a deep sigh, she spun around and stomped her way out the back door.

"Theris!" Zack called.

She slightly blushed when he called by her name so causally. He was waving at her. There were men working around and cleaning the mess from yesterday's fight. She gave Zack an uneasy look because she was the person who made most of the mess with her bombs. "Y-Yeah?" she asked.

"Would you lend us a hand?" he smiled, running up to her. "We sure can use something to crush some of the big stones around here. They're pretty heavy, you know?"

She knew what he meant and held up her hand to him. A bright marble appeared. "Here, you can use this Image Weapon then," she said, half smiling. He hesitated. "I have lots of these so you can keep it," she insisted.

"Well," Zack rubbed the back of his head. He was not sure what to say. "…Thanks, Theris." He smiled again and took the little marble. He watched it as it disappeared into his hand. He thought of a hammer and his hand glowed again. A big metal hammer was now in his hand. "Hey, that's pretty easy."

"Of course," she nodded, proud that she could be of use. She looked at the pile of rocks where the men were moving around. She rubbed her chin and thought of an idea. "Hey! Let me handle this!" she said, walking up to them. "Get out of the way!"

Zack watched her go and the men all moved away as she instructed. She looked around to make sure no one would be harm and she summoned the same staff from last night. The staff enlarged itself and she held it up in the air as the width and length continued to widen.

It looked pretty heavy but for Theris, the weight of it was like a feather. Then she brought it down and crushed the rocks, shaking the ground around the village.

"…" Zack blanked out for a moment by the results. The rocks had all crumbled into little pieces, although the ground seemed to have deepened. Now all they have to do is sweep it off the ground. "What is the name of that weapon?" he asked when she grinned at him.

"You never seen one?" she blinked at him with surprised tone in her voice. "Well… if you summon a weapon of your imagination, it will appear as you wish. But just remember, it doesn't contain any elemental attacks."

He nodded. "I see, I see…" It was amazing how the Image Weapon worked. "There is one thing I have been wondering about last night… Who created these?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. I'm just a thief who likes using all of the Mako Energy related stuff."

Zack thought for a moment, crossing his arms. He eyes wandered off and he saw Sephiroth walking from the other side of the village. "Oh yeah," he remembered something important. "Sephiroth! Will you come over here?"

Time passed. Tifa went around outside of the village to find Cloud. It was time for breakfast. She had just finish sending food around the village to the other people, who all felt bad about having Aerith doing the cooking. Some other women shared their food with the others as well.

Tifa carried a basket with a blue cloth over it, which had the food in it. She didn't want Cloud to miss breakfast. He needed his strength after all.

Genesis and Angeal were not there, but the others would take care of giving them some rations. Aerith told her that Cloud, Genesis, and Angeal were patrolling the area, just in case something comes out of nowhere again. Anything could happen.

There would be a group meeting about the red Lifestream soon. Zack wanted to talk about it with his friends. Lazard went to find Angeal and Genesis while they were also waiting for Cloud and Tifa.

"Why are we here again?" Kadaj turned to Zack, who is across the living room.

The others were around, standing in the living room too. Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were standing alongside each other by the doorway that leads to the front door. Vincent leaned his back against the wall with his arms crossed. Zack and Aerith stood by a window. Sephiroth had this back turned to them, just staring out at the other window. Theris is outside, still helping some people around the messy dust from the crushed rocks.

Zack smiled. "I have missions for all of us," he began. "But I will explain further when the others are here."

They waited for a moment. Lazard, Angeal, and Genesis entered the house. Then Cloud and Tifa came along. "Well, that didn't take long," Zack chuckled.

"Did something come up?" Tifa questioned, setting the now empty basket on a small table.

Genesis relaxed himself on the sofa. "It's not about that red Lifestream, is it?" he asked.

"Of course it is," Zack nodded. "It has been bothering me since those chaotic battles had started yesterday." He became serious. "And that Kiku girl… she could be up to something."

"Obviously," Sephiroth said.

"Also, I'm worried about the people who are not 'dead' in this world," Zack continued. "They will be hunted down by the Zetsumei at any time. This isn't a safe place for them. I have also talked to Vincent earlier. He says there were more of those red Lifestream in your world, right? Like, from various places before being knocked out and coming into this world?"

Cloud nodded, a bit confused. "Yeah. But why…?"

"That would probably mean that there are more people from your world in this world," Kadaj said, thinking intensely. Since it was described that the red Lifestream went around capturing the people from Cloud's world, a lot of them may be around in this world too. "But I highly doubt those shadow freaks will come after them anytime soon."

"You may never know," Zack said. "We don't even know the reason why the Lifestream turned red. That Kiku girl must have some kind of control over it. That's one connection there and another is that the Zetsumei listens to her. So we have to take action now before anything bad happens."

"Then what's up with the missions you brought up a couple of minutes ago?" Loz remembered.

Zack nodded to himself. "I have discussed this with Sephiroth, Aerith, Angeal, and Genesis. We're going to go around the world to find out more about this red Lifestream. While we're at it we can save those people who came into this world by the red Lifestream."

"…What?" Lazard turns to Zack with disbelief. "Why did you not discuss this with me too?"

"That's…" Zack nervously smiled. Lazard was not around at the time when he was looking for all of them.

Lazard chuckled, "Kidding. So what conclusion have you all come to?"

"We will split into four groups," Zack said, holding up four of his fingers on his left hand. "Group one are to head to the Capital across the ocean. Group two are to head to the southwest to the Dark Mist Town, across the ocean too. Group three will go to that abandoned laboratory southeast of here and meet that… weird scientist. And group four will head to northwest to the Pink Town, taking the people who are still alive there."

"…Pink Town?" Tifa raised one of eyebrow, confused. Cloud and Vincent were also feeling the same way. The other name for the other town is strange too, the Dark Mist Town. Such simple names. Who thought of those?

Zack laughed, "Pink Town is a place that holds a non-violence law. Good or evil may enter, just as long as they don't fight."

"Did you already decide who is on which group?" Cloud asked.

"Pretty much," Zack rubbed his chin, thinking. "You're in group one, Cloud. Along with Aerith, Tifa, and I. The Capital is the farthest, compare to the other groups' destination. Group two would be Kadaj, Loz, and Yazoo. The Dark Mist Town is the right place for them to go. It's a violent town. Group three would be Genesis, Angeal, and Vincent. Visiting that scientist may give us a clue… I met her once and what she told me before left me feeling… suspicious about something. Group four… well, it's going to be Sephiroth who will head to the Pink Town."

Sephiroth looked at Zack with a bit of dissatisfaction. "A town that does not allow violence, you say?" he questioned. "Is this why you want me to go there?"

"You'll only destroy your surroundings if you fought," Angeal said with a light chuckle.

Sephiroth looked away, understanding why they decided that. Just less work for him so he shrugs it off.

Yazoo was confused about the Dark Mist Town. "A violent town?" he blinked, expressionless.

"You three do use a lot of violence," Zack said, smiling. "It's where most of the 'evil' gatherers go to. Try to find what they know."

"That's an easy job," Loz snorted.

Kadaj smirked. "Well, if those people in that town do know something and refuse to tell us… then we can use violence. Sounds all right. We'll go there."

Vincent looked at Genesis and Angeal. He was going to be with them and meet a scientist. He had no complaints.

"There's a Capital here?" Tifa asked. "What is there to do if we head there?"

"We have a ruler in this world," Aerith explained. "He makes sure that we are all living the way we want and prevents wars. Since something has happen recently, he might have gotten news by now and is investigating. He would be a great help to us. I met him before so he'll let us know anything that he knows."

Tifa nodded, "I see."

"As for Lazard," Zack glanced at him with a smile. "Will you take the 'alive' people to Pink Town? Perhaps going with Sephiroth would be a better idea. The Zetsumei might attack again."

"Yes," Lazard firmly nodded.

Zack clapped his hand once. "Now that we're done with this short meeting. Let's hurry and do our jobs. We will meet back here as soon as we're done. Everyone have a cell phone, right?"

"They even work over this side?" Cloud inquired, a little shocked.

"Let's try it out then," Zack said. He had forgotten that Cloud and the others had cell phones, but is not sure if it would connect to theirs that are from the other world.

Cloud's mind drifted off for a moment. _Zack is still a hero, even after his death._ Cloud thought to himself.

Zack was quickly planning to stop any evil from overtaking or plotting anything. A smile spread on Cloud's face. He looked over to Aerith. She looked back at him and smiled. The sound of a familiar ringing tone came from his pocket. He snapped out of his mind and picked it up. "Yes?" he put it up to his ear.

"Hey, it does work!" Zack said, smiling happily.

Cloud then remembers what Zack was trying out. He felt a little embarrassed when he had answered it. "…How did you know my number?" Cloud asked.

"Tifa told me just now," Zack replied. "You weren't listening a second ago so I asked Tifa. Now… to make sure I have everyone's number…" He went to get Tifa's number and Vincent's. Everyone did the same as they all exchanged their numbers.

"Even you, Sephiroth?" Cloud looked at him. There had been a few surprises lately.

Sephiroth turned around slowly to face the group. "…I don't have one," he said.

"Neither do I," Genesis went, shrugging. "I mean, Sephiroth and I just appeared in the middle of the village not too long before you three came here. Then those Zetsumei attacked."

It was weird but Genesis was not going to question about it. The only thing that actually bothers him was when he last remembers where he was. He was sure it was not the time when Zack had left with Cloud back then. But tracing back his own memories was hurting his head so he just stopped thinking about it last night.

Sephiroth looked back out the window. He was not sure himself why he ended up here. He certaintly does remember the last time he appeared in the other world. His thoughts were different this time though. What had changed his 'insane' self? He was not sure. Nothing unusual was coming to mind.

Just right outside, he saw a slight shadow moving. A little boy with black hair played with the other kids and had notice the same shadow Sephiroth did. Curiously, the little boy reached out to touch the shadow but Sephiroth grabbed Masamune, which was leaning against the wall, and jumped out of the window, breaking it.

Everyone jumped, startled.

"Sephiroth?" Zack exclaimed through the broken window.

Sephiroth grabbed the boy's waist and jumped back. One Zetsumei leapt out of the shadows towards Sephiroth. He quickly slashed through the creature and it disappeared. All of the kids started running, finding shelter as more Zetsumei flew out of the shadows. The screams of the children had warned everyone and they all started to panic.

"Get out of here," Sephiroth let the boy go.

The boy had teary eyes. He nodded. "Thank you…!" he hurried as a woman grabbed a hold of his hand and the both of them ran off.

"They're already back?" Zack grunted angrily, grabbing his sword. Everyone ran outside.

The last person to walk out of the house was Genesis. He took his time and looked around with an uninterested face. He wanted to summon a spirit but he could not. He wanted to summon one last night too, but nothing happened. If only he could summon some spirits to help everyone here. He shrugged about summoning one, and why he cannot, he hurried to fight with the Zetsumei.

There are a lot of screams. There are too much of the Zetsumei running around within such a short time. Everyone spread out to fight the monsters and aid the people.

Loz heard a familiar angry voice and looked at the running figures around him. He walked and stepped on something that rolled under his left boot. He lowered down and picked the small marble up. An Image Weapon. It disappeared into him after a few seconds.

He looked around again and spotted Theris. She was lying on her stomach as some girl with white short hair stomps on her legs. Theris cried in pain as her legs glowed and more Image Weapons rolled on the ground out of her.

He glared, getting up. "Hey!" he shouted angrily, running to help Theris.

Theris tried to roll away but then the white haired girl stepped on her kneecap. She felt it crack and cried in more pain. "Yuffie!" she glared up at the girl. Why is her skin so gray? Why…? "Why are you doing this?!" Theris demanded with hatred. Had she gone insane?

Yuffie just smiled. She picked up some Image Weapons and it all entered her.

Just when Loz was going to attack Yuffie, Kiku appeared and blocked his punch with her metal brace on her arm. She gave him a death glare. "Stay out of our way," she hissed.

Theris cried again as Yuffie stomped on her other kneecap. The ground under them had also been pushed down. More Image Weapons came out. "That's a lot you've stolen," Yuffie said, taking some for herself.

Loz glared at Kiku. "YOU get out of my way!" he roared furiously.

Kiku's left hand glowed and a long sword appeared. She pushed him away with her arm and he jumped backwards. She charged at him, ready to cut him in two.

Sephiroth appeared out of nowhere, and to her surprise, he blocked her attack with his Masamune.

He smirked. "Hello again," he greeted. "Never thought we would meet this quickly."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I guess I can't avoid this battle," she said in a low voice. "So… I guess before I get what I came for, you may be my opponent."


	6. The Early Assault

**Chapter 6: The Early Assault**

"You may be my opponent," Kiku said. She gripped the bark-brown handle of her dark pink blade, slightly pushing Sephiroth's Masamune that was against hers.

"Heh," he stared into her bright pink eyes. "I don't need your consent to be your opponent." He pushed her away forcefully. Flipping into the air, she ran away, making her way out of the village. "It's too early to be retreating," he chuckled, quickly running after her.

Loz switched his attention back to Theris. Yuffie seemed bored and she yawned. Loz appeared right in front of her. He was going to throw his fist in her face, but she swiftly grabbed his arm and jumped away to the trees and stood on a tree branch.

"You're pretty fast," she commented, putting her hands on her hips, "But you're just a human." She disappeared and stood behind him. He looked over his shoulders and glared at her. "But I'm faster because I'm an Undead."

"Undead, my ass!" he threw another punch to her.

Yuffie laughed with joy and disappeared again.

Theris pushed herself to sit up. Her legs ached so much. She could feel the some of the pieces of her bones cracking. She stared down at the Image Weapons that were lying around her. She recalled the childhood memories of Yuffie, her best friend at the time. But Yuffie had drifted further and further each year. Yuffie was the only friend she trusted. It angered every time that she said she had other business to tend to.

Clutching her hands into fists, Theris bit her lower lip. "Yuuuffffiieeeeeeee!" she shouted with tremendous hatred. Yuffie's treatment of her was the last straw. She was not going to forgive her now.

Vincent was in the middle of fighting off the Zetsumei. Shooting down most of them, he turned around when he heard Yuffie's name.

Theris tried to stand up on her broken legs. Seeing her vulnerable, the shadow creatures quickly dashed towards her. Loz noticed them coming to her and grabbed Theris, putting her over his shoulder. He gave the Image Weapons a quick look. There were about ten of them, Yuffie had taken most of them already. He put his hands over them and it all glowed, entering him. They _are_ pretty easy to control. Standing up, he dodged every monster that jumped to him and hurried to find shelter for Theris.

"Let me down!" Theris cried angrily, hitting his back with her fists. He said nothing, jumping around to dodge more Zetsumei. She growled, giving him a final hit. She still had some Image Weapon with her. She could just summon a weapon and stab him, but he helped her from danger. She had to be a little thankful. She looked around. "Yufffiieeee!" she cried out again.

Aerith was protecting the children and the women in the house. Some of them were injured and she quickly healed them. Kadaj and Yazoo were making sure none of the Zetsumei was going to enter the house. Tifa and Cloud were also doing the same at the other houses, with the help of Angeal and Lazard. The only ones who were going around attacking the Zetsumei were Vincent, Zack, and Genesis. But even if they all were protecting the ones who were in the house, a few people had already been killed outside.

Zack glared as he slashed through every Zetsumei. "Damn it!" he exclaimed. "There's too many of them!" He had to think of something. Anything. There was no chance to run out of the village either. "Ah! Genesis!" he smiled when Genesis jumped out from nowhere. "Do you have a summon spirit that can teleport people out of here?"

Genesis thought for a moment. He stepped aside when one monster leaped towards him. "Yes, I think I do," he said. "But I can't seem to summon anymore. A pity."

"What?!" Zack said, struggling with one of the Zetsumei. His big sword was in its mouth. Zack used all of his strength and slashed from the monster's mouth and all the way down its body. It disappeared and Zack sighed tiredly. "Then what are we supposed to do?!"

Genesis shrugged.

Sephiroth and Kiku ran outside of the village, into the forest. He stayed right behind her, not catching up or falling behind. She found that irritating and felt like he was teasing her. She knew that he could be faster if he wanted to but he was only keeping up with her speed. Nor did she speed up either.

Annoyed, she faced him with her sword. Their blades hit one another and they held their ground. Kiku smirked at him and he smirked back. Her sword suddenly broke into pieces. Looking at it closely, there was a thick wire that connected the pieces. A Snakesword. The tip of the sword went around them and targeted Sephiroth. He pushed her back and managed to dodge the deathblow by her. The two of them kept their distances, waiting for the other to react.

"Oh…" Sephiroth grinned when he noticed a chip on his blade. His eyes fixed on Kiku. He was amused. This is the first time in a very long time that his blade had ever gotten chipped. She really was not a human after all. He drew his sword back, ready to jump and strike her.

Kiku had already made a move before he did. She jumped towards him and hit him with her blade, but he blocked it with his own. She glared as he smirked at her.

"You seem to be having fun," she observed. He seemed to be a very strong foe. She needed to be careful. He was as strong as he looked, maybe even stronger.

Sephiroth blinked slowly and gazed at her. He shoved her away again with Masamune and she flipped in the air, landing far away from him. "You could say that I am having fun, but…" he gripped his sword with two hands. "Let's just see how long you can entertain me."

She held onto her sword tightly as he moved towards her. He brought his sword down and she jumped away. "I'm sorry, but I'm an entertainer," she said, running off from tree to tree.

Then she heard a light ringing sound in her head. She realized she did not have the time to fool around with him. There was something else she must do but getting away from him would not be easy task. She could feel him right behind her, following her every step over again.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sephiroth had appeared in front of her and slashed her. She blocked his blade with her metal arm brace, hurrying to form a distance between them. "I haven't even mention my name yet," he smirked as the wind blow around them.

"Not interested," she glared.

His long hair gracefully flew around him and she could not help but stare at it. It was beautiful.

Studying him, she realized that he was not attacking her because she dozed off. "How do you manage to keep your hair long, carrying that long blade of yours?" she questioned. Since he was not attacking just yet, she wanted to know.

Sephiroth did not know what to think of that. Why was she asking such a question at a time like this? He did not want to hurt her because she was not even paying attention. He would have taken the chance to kill her but she only stood and that confused him. "You were looking at my hair?" he asked, his bangs touching his face.

"You know, if you were a woman, I probably would have outrun you a while ago," Kiku said, changing the subject. She scratched her face and turned to look around.

He could not help but frown. She did not seem like the type to cause trouble, but she definitely had some skills with her sword. This was just the beginning so he did not know her true abilities. He could have struck her down when she looked away just now, but why would he when she was defenseless? It did not seem right, was that it? What was Sephiroth thinking at a time like this?

She too did not attack him when he blanked out for a moment. She started to feel awkward. _I wonder how's Yuffie's doing right now._ She thought mentally, turning away.

Sephiroth was not going to space out this time. It only puzzled him why he would. He leaped towards her, ready for another attack. Her attention went back to the battle and she activated her Snakesword, ready to defend and attack.

Sephiroth then felt a shockwave in his head and he dropped to his knees just when he was to strike for her arm. He knelt in front of her, holding his head as the shockwave kept coming. He groaned quietly and painfully.

Kiku's sword was going for his neck, but it retreated back into one whole sword. If she had not, she would have had his head just now. She stared at him as he was in pain.

Back at the village, Aerith's head started to hurt and she cried. It felt like it was going to split. Kadaj heard his mother's cry and rushed into the house.

"Mother!" Kadaj hurried to her side. "What's wrong?"

Aerith calmed herself, but the headache did not go away. Then she heard a loud ringing in her head and she covered her ears. Kadaj said something but she could not hear him. She continued to hold back her cry so the others would not be distracted as they fought outside.

Kiku walked away, ignoring Sephiroth. She looked back at him and he look at her with one eye with Masamune in his hand. The other eye was closed because the pain in his head. It was the perfect chance to attack him. _Waste of time._ She only thought. She dashed through the forest, returning back to the village.

Sephiroth dropped to his hands and he touched his head. He gripped his hair, hearing a loud ringing in his head. It was driving him nuts. He tried to get up, but it was no use. It was too painful.

Yuffie walked by and spotted Cloud. He was fighting all over the place, protecting the house where the people were. It felt like she knew him from somewhere, but she shrugged it off. She continued to walk around, unnoticed by anyone. "Where did that redhead and silverhead go?" she pouted. Theris was screaming for Yuffie and she could tell where she was, but Theris had stopped so Yuffie could not locate her voice anymore.

Stopping, she looked at the house Cloud and Tifa were defending. "In there, maybe?" she tapped on her chin with her finger.

Loz set Theris down beside the some of the people in one of the houses. She breathed heavily through her nose because Loz had stuffed her mouth with a cloth. She was being too loud. She glared furiously at him, but he couldn't care less.

Yuffie had jumped through the window, crushing it into pieces and landed in front of them. The people in the same room screamed and hurried to get away. "Ah, there you are," Yuffie grinned.

Loz glared at her. "You're so persistent!"

Yuffie looked at Theris. She stared right back at the gray-skinned girl. Theris's legs ached, but her heart was what ached the most. She could not believe Yuffie would do such a thing to her. After all these years, she had always waited for Yuffie. She wanted to return to the days when they hunted for rare items together.

Theris closed her eyes. Her legs gave her so much pain and she fainted after a second of closing her eyes. Then her body glowed bright green and then she disappeared.

"Hey, where did she go?!" Yuffie looked around for Theris. She no longer heard the screams of the people either. Everyone in the room, but Loz, had vanished.

Some of the Zetsumei crushed into the houses and Zack followed to hurry and protect the people there. There was a flash of a bright green light. Zack knocked the front door down but it was empty inside. The Zetsumei were running around to see if the people were hiding somewhere.

"Huh?" Zack looked around. The Zetsumei ignored his presence since he is not what they are looking for. "Where did all villagers go?"

"I teleported them outside of the forest," a female voice said.

Zack turned around. He looked at the girl. "And you are…?" he asked.

She wore a black dress with long sleeves, her shoulders bare. A black hood covered half her face while her cape fell to her lower back. Black bangs covered her eyes. She wore black leather gloves and black shoes. She also wore fishnet tights, her dress had a long slit and it showed her right leg.

She walked away without answering.

"Wait!" he followed her.

She stopped and turned to him. He quickly stood right in front of her. "You should hurry and carry out your plan," she told him. She quickly ran out of his sight.

Zack sighed. "Who was that girl? And how did she know about…?" He looked around outside.

The Zetsumei were all wandering around and leaving to find the people who were not from this world. Half of them went towards Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent since the three of them were still in the village. Zack and the others were being completely ignored now.

Yuffie pouted. Theris might not be around here anymore. She hurried outside and jumped up on the roof. She looked at the Zetsumei. "Never mind getting your breakfast! Get rid of the ones that are here right now!" she ordered. Kiku probably would not want anyone to escape. Yuffie needed to make sure they will not become a troublesome group who would interfere with them.

Then she saw Vincent. He looked up at her, standing on the ground with his gun in his hand. His expressionless look showed a little of shock and confusion. "Yuffie?" he asked.

She blinked at him. Just another nobody who she might know as well. She did not inquire about it and turned to leave the rest to the Zetsumei to do the work while she went to find Theris.

"Yuffie!" Vincent ran off after her.

"Okay! Listen up, everyone!" Zack shouted. "Retreat! Do what I have instructed about the groups! Don't forget to keep in touch!!"

They were going to leave the dead bodies there. Most of them were no longer bodies because the Zetsumei had eaten them. If they did not run now, who knew what would happen if millions of Zetsumei appeared.

Zack closed his eyes. "Sorry…" he said, silently praying for those who died.

Cloud and Tifa nodded to each other. They quickly followed Zack as they searched for Aerith.

Tifa looked back at the dead bodies sadly. She felt sorry for not being able to save them. But in a situation like this, she needed to hurry.

Genesis and Angeal went to look for Vincent.

Yazoo met up with Loz.

Kadaj carried his mother in his arms and walked outside. He had heard Zack so he hurried to him. Zack, Cloud, and Tifa ran up to him.

"Aerith?" Tifa leaned closer.

"…Take care of her," Kadaj said, handing her to Zack. Kadaj looked at his mother with one last look and went to find Yazoo and Loz.

"Aerith?" Zack looked at her in his arms. "What's wrong?"

The ringing in her head faded away and she shook her head. "I'm… not sure…" she replied. She smiled up at Zack. "But I'm fine now."

"Let's get out of here first," Cloud said, looking back at the Zetsumei.

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz went to the furtherest old shed near the entrance of the village. The three of them rushed inside. The Zetsumei chased them, doing as Yuffie had told them.

The noises of the motorcycles were heard by the time they were close enough to the shed. Three big black motorcycles burst out of the shed and drove pass them. Kadaj drove ahead of the other two, Yazoo in the middle, and then Loz. The Zetsumei followed them out of the village.

Genesis and Angeal looked around for Vincent but he was not in sight. There was not enough time to search for him. "We have his cell phone number. We'll call him after all of this," Genesis said.

Angeal nodded. The two of them flew into the sky.

Kiku arrived at the village. It was almost empty by the time she came. She could hear the Zetsumei and a couple of voices from afar. A few were still around, finishing up their little bloody breakfast. She walked back to where she last saw Yuffie and the redhead girl. Nobody was there. Kiku turned around with a sigh. She only had one Image Weapon in her, but it is not like she needs more. One is more than enough for her.

It's Yuffie that she is worried about. _I wonder if Yuffie has the rest of them…_ She thought.

Vincent had lost sight of Yuffie in the forest. He stopped running around and realized that he had left his group members behind back at the village. His cell phone started ringing and he quickly picked it up. "Yes?" he asked.

"_Where are you?_" Angeal's voice came on.

Vincent looked around to see where he was. As if that would help. He looked up at the trees. He jumped to the branches and stood on top of the tree. He saw Angeal and Genesis flying in the sky not too far from where he was. "Over here," Vincent replied.


	7. The Assassin

**Chapter 7: The Assassin**

The people of the Firefly Light Village and the others found themselves south of the Firefly Forest. Lazard was also with them, realizing something or someone must have teleported them all the way out here. Lazard told the people to prepare to travel to Pink Town.

Some people were crying about their loss. Their family and their home. The Zetsumei would have eaten up all the dead bodies by now. People comforted one another and it took a while to get everyone to start moving.

Lazard sighed heavily. He took his gray cell phone out of his pocket and dialed to the phonebook. "Zack?" he put the cell phone to his ears. "Is Sephiroth with you?"

"_Nope_," Zack's voice said. In the background, it sounded like they were still being chased after by the Zetsumei. "_Why don't you just head to Pink Town first? We can't afford any more lives being lost while they're in the Lifestream…_"

"I wonder what happened to them after being eaten by those creatures," Lazard thought aloud with concern.

Zack chuckle nervously. "_I don't want to know_," he said. "_It can't be good though._"

A monstrous voice screeched in the sky. Lazard looked up and flying shadow birds were circling, giving their friends signals of where the 'food' was located.

"Sorry Zack, I have to go," Lazard said, hanging up the phone.

The people around him started to scream when they saw the flying Zetsumei in the sky. They all hurried to their feet, running in all directions.

"Stay calm, everyone!" Lazard exclaimed.

No one listened. How could they? He was the only one who could fight and he would not be able to protect all of them. It would be just better if they all ran for their lives, quickly getting away as far as they could.

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

A hideous shriek echoed in the sky. Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz stepped on the brakes of their motorcycles. The three of them were still inside the forest. Their objective was to head southwest.

"What the hell was that?" Loz looked around.

The sound came from behind them. Yazoo looked over his shoulders and stared at the sky. "Up there," he said.

The two of them did. There were winged Zetsumei flying towards the same direction. Faint screams were heard.

Kadaj grinned. "Let's go and check it out." He started his motorcycle and held onto the handle. He sped after the monsters. Yazoo and Loz trailed behind him.

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

Zack, Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa came across the same cliff with no bridge. The one that was broken yesterday.

Tifa sighed and looked at Zack. "Why didn't you plan about _this_?" she asked. They would not be able to cross if there is no bridge. They could call Genesis and Angeal to take the four of them across this canyon.

"Don't worry," Zack said. "We're the group who aren't in a hurry. We can all just head down the cliff and then climb our way up. We all have skills to jump around, right?"

Cloud and Tifa looked at Aerith. "Eh?" Aerith pointed at herself. "Oh, don't be concern about me. I can make it."

"I'll carry you in my arms," Zack offered. "You're not feeling well, right?"

Aerith smiled. "I'm fine, really."

Cloud took a closer look down the cliff. There were spaces on the rocks to walk on so they should be fine by walking down. He looked back at Zack. "Since we're not in a hurry, let's go find Fenrir," he said. "With it, I can find someone to give you three a ride in a wagon. Or something like that."

"Not a bad idea," Zack nodded in agreement. He looked at Aerith, giving his arms to her. "Come on, Aerith. Let's get going then."

Aerith slightly blushed and Tifa giggled.

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

"Haaaaahhhhhhhhh!" Lazard hit the ground with his glowing hand. The beams of light surrounded the people and shot out towards the sky, hitting the flying monsters. He took out more than he thought he would have but more just kept on coming. He knew he couldn't this by himself, but there was no one nearby to call for help.

The loud cries of the people woke Theris up. She opened her eyes and moaned painfully from trying to move her legs. "Where… am I?" she looked around. Behind her were the people who were gathering together as a crowed, trying to avoid getting hurt. Lazard stood in front of her.

Yuffie was riding on a flying Zetsumei and jumped off. "Hold on a second!" she called. She landed on the ground, dust fluttering around her. She grinned as the Zetsumei all backed away. She looked at Lazard. "I'm not here to pick on the weaklings. If you want these people to leave here safely, you must leave that redhead behind," she said, pointing at Theris.

"What do you want with her?" he asked, on his guard.

Theris snorted. "You attacked the village and now you only want me?"

"Attacking the village really wasn't what we were aiming for," Yuffie shrugged. "We only want the Image Weapons back. They don't belong to you."

"Okay, fine," Theris glared. "Then take me."

Lazard looked at her. "But…"

"Look, I don't even know you," she glared at him. "Leave me behind. All of these people here have nothing to do with this. They already lost their home. Just go and take them away from here. She won't kill me or anything."

Lazard stared at her. Her glaring eyes were filled with anger and concern.

"I'll be fine," she said, looking away.

"Please," someone pleaded from the crowd. "I don't want to die here!"

"Our home…" one sobbed.

Lazard sighed with a slight smile. He looked at Theris. "After getting that intense look in your eyes… Alright, I'll leave you behind as you wish. Just stay alive."

Theris pouted and looked back at Yuffie. "Even if you're taking me, I'm still going to resist. So try your best to take me with you," she grinned.

Yuffie's hand glowed and a kunai appeared in the same hand. "Sure, resist as much as you want," she smiled back.

A green light glowed appeared around Lazard and the people. _Another teleportation?_ Lazard thought, alarmed. If he hurried and grabbed Theris, perhaps she would come along with them. But before he could even reach out to her, they all teleported away.

"Not again!" Yuffie glared. "Who keeps doing that!"

Theris chuckled. "Luck's on their side," she said.

Yuffie narrowed her eyes at her. "Whatever, you're alone now. No one will help you," she smirked.

The feeling of murderous intent filled in the air. Yuffie felt someone from above and jumped to her right. A girl with dark clothes hit the ground with two curved blades, where Yuffie was supposed to be. Yuffie landed in her heels and looked at the person who tried to kill her. It was a girl in a black dress with the hood and the little cape. "Who are you?" Yuffie demanded. She looked up at the sky. All of the Zetsumei were gone as well.

The strange hooded girl grabbed her two wave swords out of the ground and motion into a fighting position. She was the same person who had teleported the people out of the village. "You don't remember me?" the hooded girl questioned, unmoved.

Yuffie took a moment to think. Her thoughts went back to her older memories, but then she stopped when her head started to hurt. "Ah, I don't care who you are!" Yuffie pointed, smiling. "If you're going to get in the way, I'm going to kill you!"

"That's odd," the hooded girl said. "The one who is going to do the killing is me. I already killed you once. I don't know how you're up and running, I'll just have to kill you again."

Theris looked at the two girls. _What…?_ She asked herself in her head. _Yuffie was killed once…? Wait, Yuffie mentioned being an Undead earlier to Loz._ Theris started to feel confused. What happened between these two girls?

The hooded girl took a step and then ran straight towards Yuffie. Yuffie laughed and summoned a ball chain. She grabbed the chain and yanked it, the ball heading to the hooded girl. She dodged the hit and jumped on the chain, running on it as the ball hit the ground. Yuffie glared. The hooded girl was faster than she thought. Yuffie summoned a dagger and threw it to her.

She vanished and reappeared behind Yuffie. "I'll introduce myself again, Yuffie Kisaragi," she said, slashing her back. Yuffie had slightly moved but still had a deep cut on her back. "My name is Purge, an assassin."

Yuffie had fallen on the ground. _An… assassin?_ She slowly turned to Purge, starting to get a glimpse in her memory. If only her head was not hurting, she would have beaten the carp out of the hooded girl. "I think I remember a little now… we only met just a while ago… right?"

Yuffie looked at Purge's wicked smile. "That's right," Purge replied. "Someone wants you dead. I still don't understand why you're all gray, but you're still alive. My mission is not complete until you're no longer here." Purge held up her sword. "Goodbye again, Yuffie Kisaragi."

Yuffie's eyes widen. The feeling of death ran down her spine. "No…" she mumbled quietly, time slowly moved around her. "I'm here… because… because…"

A bullet shot on Purge's left sword and she took steps back when the bullets were still coming. She looked at the hole in her sword. "Tsk, cheap weapon. Should have made it stronger," she bit her lower lip. She heard a person jumping in front of her and looked to see who had interfered with her job.

Vincent stood between the two girls, pointing his Cerberus at Purge. He narrowed his eyes at the hooded girl. "I don't have a clue why you're trying to kill Yuffie," he spoke up. "But I won't let you lay another finger on her."

Purge threw her sword in the air as it glowed and she caught it. The light disappeared and the hole in her sword was gone. She stared at Vincent behind her black bangs. "I'd like to see you try," she said. "I'm not going anywhere until she's dead."

Vincent looked at her two blades. _Are those also Image Weapons?_ He wondered. It had the same shine as Theris's little marbles.

Yuffie's wound on her back started to slowly healing by itself. She stared at Vincent's back, stunned. "I'm here…" she mumbled to herself. "…Was it because of…him?"


	8. The Time She Left

**Chapter 8: The Time She Left**

"Who paid you to kill Yuffie?" Vincent inquired, still aiming Cerberus at Purge.

She did not say. She had already given enough information to these strangers.

A gun fired. It was not Vincent's. He turned to see who it was. Theris breathed heavily, glaring at Yuffie. She held a black gun that had already shot Yuffie in the right upper arm. If only she was not hurt and had more strength, she would have shot through Yuffie's head.

Yuffie let out a light moan, losing her balance. The bullet was burning inside of her. She irritably turned toward Theris, standing up straight. Without a word, she quickly ran off back into the forest. It was the only place where she would lose everyone who might follow her.

The redhead fired again, but Vincent quickly reacted and shot it with his own. He and Purge went after Yuffie and quickly caught up with her.

"Yuffie!" Vincent grabbed her arm, pulling her.

She glared at him, throwing a punch. He let her go and dodged it. Purge jumped above them, landing in front of the fleeing Yuffie. Yuffie summoned a claw on her right hand and tried to stab Purge. As Purge dodged, she slashed at Yuffie only to be deflected by Vincent's bullets.

Purge teleported and cut through Vincent, who had jumped out of the way and sliced a piece of cloth from his cape, which fell to the ground. Yuffie needed to buy more time for her wounds to heal so she rushed away from them.

The two hurried to catch up with Yuffie again.

A figure appeared jumping in the air, over Yuffie who continued to run, and landed in front of the two.

"Chrysanthemum!" Yuffie smiled and waved.

Vincent and Purge looked up at Kiku. She had her snake sword in her hand. Quickly, Kiku's snake sword split into pieces. She slashed on the ground with her whip-like sword sending a wave of dirt and the tree's root towards the two pursuers.

Vincent leapt over the shattered ground that flew in the air. He quickly made it to the other side and passed Kiku.

Purge started to feel tired. She wasted a lot of energy teleporting a lot of people away. _I will have to use it again…_ she thought. Teleporting to where Yuffie was should not drain too much of her strength away. Kiku was in the way. This was her only chance so she would have to make sure she killed Yuffie this time.

A bomb was thrown toward Purge. She flipped back. It exploded and she hurried to escape the flames from the blast.

Yuffie jumped into the air and dropped more bombs around them, forcing Vincent and Purge out of the forest.

Kiku followed them. "Don't push yourself," she told Yuffie.

Yuffie landed on the branch of the tree, breathing heavily. Her wounds were not healing yet. She smiled at Kiku, "I'll stay here for a while then." The wind was blowing the flames away from her so she should be okay where she was at the moment.

Meanwhile, Vincent was trying to stop Purge from going off to kill Yuffie. "Who hired you?" he demanded again.

She distanced herself from him. She stared at the flames and saw Kiku jumping out of it. The Zetsumei returned, following Kiku's lead. "Great, bringing me more unnecessary trouble," she sighed. Her job was not going very well.

He pointed his gun at Purge, sensing the monsters behind him. He did not want to take his eyes off Purge and give her a chance to escape.

Kiku readied her sword to cut Vincent down. She leaped into the air, but then Sephiroth appeared, blocking her attack with Masamune. The two pushed each other away and landed on the ground.

"You again?" she glared at the silver hair man, irritated.

"Thanks," Vincent said, glancing behind him where Sephiroth stood.

"Humph," Sephiroth grinned at Kiku. "You should have killed me when you had the chance."

Kiku looked around and saw Theris. "Get her," she ordered the Zetsumei around her.

All of the human-looking Zetsumei spread across the field and ran straight towards the defenseless redhead.

Sephiroth ran past the Zetsumei and towards Kiku.

"Eh? Why are _you_ coming after me?" Kiku demanded with an annoyance. She thought he would at least defend that woman over there. She gave Sephiroth an irritated look. She thrust into the ground and the tip of the snake sword came up behind Sephiroth, aiming for his back.

He turned around, hitting it away with his Masamune.

Theris covered her head as the Zetsumei all jumped for her.

"Theris!" a familiar deep voice cried.

She opened her eyes. Loz drove under the Zetsumei who were all in the air and grabbed her hand, jerking her to sit in front of him, her legs on the left side of the motorcycle. He quickly drove around the Zetsumei who followed.

Yazoo and Kadaj rode along with him, heading back to their destination. Yazoo shot the shadow creatures down as Kadaj sliced them out of their way.

"What are you boys doing here?" Theris glared. Loz's arm was around her, holding her in place in case she fell. His other hand was on the handle of the motorcycle.

Kadaj smirked, "Loz here was worried about you."

"We're taking you with us," Yazoo clarified. "No one else here can take care of you at the moment."

"Aren't you boys _acting_ strange," Theris eyed Loz with doubtful eyes. "You're only taking me with you because you guys want to use the Image Weapons that I have, right?"

"This isn't the time to joke," Loz said, keeping his eyes in the front of them.

Theris looked up at him, half-smiling. Her legs were still hurting as they drove off, but she did not want to whine about it. She bit her lip, enduring the pain. _I'll get Yuffie when I get better._ She thought bitterly, narrowing her eyes.

Kadaj looked back and the Zetsumei were falling behind. He grinned and the three motorcycles sped up even more.

Vincent had lost Purge among the running crowed of Zetsumei. They were all after him and her. When he looked up at the sky, hearing the monsters' cries of pain, he saw Genesis and Angeal, who had been fighting the Zetsumei in the sky.

Kiku glared at Sephiroth, who kept coming at her with his Masamune. She turned away, disappearing among the monsters around her.

He ran and slashed his way through, but she was gone. "Tsk," he felt unsatisfied.

Kiku went back to where Yuffie was. She jumped up to the branch, in front of her. "Yuffie, I have a task for you," she said, giving her an intense look.

Yuffie's wounds were not healed yet. "…What is it?" she asked.

All of the Zetsumei were finished off. Sephiroth looked over to Vincent, Genesis, and Angeal. There was no one else around. He looked back at the forest. He saw a movement and quickly darted forward.

The flames flickered then slowly disappeared. Yuffie was thrown towards Sephiroth. He stopped running and caught her in his right arm. He looked at her. She looked human again. Her eyes were closed, unconscious.

Then he heard Kiku's footsteps and threw Yuffie over to Vincent. Sephiroth quickly left the group.

"Hey, Sephiroth!" Genesis shouted after him. "Geez… what does he think he's doing?"

Angeal watched Sephiroth leave and looked over to Vincent and Yuffie. He walked towards them. "How is she?" he asked, putting his sword behind him.

Vincent shook his head. "I'm not sure," he replied. He held her in his arms. "Yuffie?" he called softly.

Her eyes still closed, her body did not move. At least she was still breathing.

Genesis looked up at the green sky. "Well, if you're worried about her then let's take her with us," he said. "We should probably hurry to that laboratory. I don't want our group to be the last to complete a mission."

Vincent and Angeal nodded.

"Wait," Vincent said. "Yuffie's wounded in the back."

Genesis and Angeal looked at him and then at each other. "I'll fix her wounds," Angeal said, getting a few item out of his little pouch on his side.

Vincent set Yuffie on the ground and Angeal kneeled by her.

"Look away, you two," Angeal said in warning tone.

The both of them turned, facing the other way. Genesis glanced at Vincent in the corner of his eye. "So, her name's Yuffie?" he asked.

Vincent nodded.

Genesis smiled, sighing. "How did she get here?" he asked. "She wasn't with you guys when I saw you and your friends back in the village."

He looked at the ground.

"Did something happen to her?"

Frowning, Vincent allowed the memories to surface.

After Omega's defeat, Yuffie had been so anxious about Vincent disappearance and the search for him. When she heard Shelke went to pick him up, she received a call from an important friend, who Cloud and the others did not know and she left without a word.

The friend must have been Theris.

Vincent returned and was greeted back at Cloud's place. Everyone patted Vincent's back and celebrated for his hard work in stopping Omega from leaving the planet. When Vincent did not see Yuffie around, he did not question.

Shalua's capsule had been found later. So Vincent hung around and Shalua finally woke up after a few days. Shalua and Shelke were alone for some time and the both of them were getting along, but Shelke was just starting to get use to being around her sister. Three weeks later, the two of them left together. Before they did, Shelke talked to Vincent. She thanked him and had a little talk about how the two of them would live on.

Then the two left.

Tifa got a call from Cid about Yuffie. He was trying to get a hold of her but Yuffie never picked up her cell phone. Vincent was still at Cloud's place and he wasn't too worried. Yuffie could take care of herself after all.

A week later, Reeve called. He found out that Yuffie was last seen being chased after by someone, which was five days ago. No one knew where she was. Tifa, concerned, was going to suggest giving Barret a call to look for Yuffie but Vincent volunteered instead.

Over the phone, Vincent had asked Reeve who told who was chasing Yuffie. Reeve told him it was a young female who had Yuffie's cell phone. The woman would not answer the phone when they called.

After a month of searching, Vincent returned with no news about Yuffie. Their only clue was that the young woman who carried Yuffie's cell phone.

"Alright, I'm done," Angeal said, interrupting Vincent's thoughts.

Vincent and Genesis turned back, Angeal picked Yuffie up. The bandage was wrapped around her body for the cut on her back and another bandage around her right arm where Theris had shot her.

"I'll carry her," Vincent said. "You two head to the laboratory first."

"Are you sure about that?" Genesis questioned. "Although, it would be faster if Angeal and I fly there."

Angeal gave Yuffie to Vincent. "There's actually a wagon and a couple of horses near the village. I left it there the other day… but I'm not sure if the horses ran off after hearing all those explosions that Theris was causing."

"It doesn't matter," Vincent said glancing down at Yuffie's weary but peaceful form.

"We'll do that then," Angel said, looking over to Genesis.

"I still think it would be faster if we fly there," Genesis said, smirking at them.


	9. The Rumor

**Chapter 9: The Rumor**

"Hey!" Loz slammed the little building's front door open. "Do you have first aid, bandages, or whatever?"

A big man, taller than Loz, turned around. He stood behind the counters, giving Loz an angry look. The man had dark brown hair with blue eyes. He wore dull loose clothes and seemed to be in his forties.

Entering the building, Loz walked up to the man. "Can't you use a nicer tone?" the man asked, chewing on a straw. He was in the middle of rearranging his clean bowls.

Stepping through the door, Kadaj looked around the room. There were other doors that lead to this small room. The dusty air made it look humid.

It had been hours since they rescued Theris. She was outside with Yazoo while he and Loz were trying to find something to help her legs. Right now, they were in the south of the Firefly Forest.

The green sky had darkened. Outside of the small old building, Theris was sitting on Loz's motorcycle. Yazoo leaned against his, cleaning his gun with a small white cloth and reloading it. Theris looked up at the sign that read: Daddy's Boats.

"Where the hell are we?" she asked, giving the sign a disgust look.

"It's what it looks like," Yazoo replied. "We can't cross the ocean without a boat."

"Huh," she narrowed her eyes. She looked around. The ocean probably was miles from here. "So… if we get a boat from this poor place, does that mean you three boys will have to push the boat towards the ocean while I'm riding on it? You know, since I can't walk."

He stopped cleaning his gun, staring at the building. He'd never thought about it. Where should they put the motorcycles? He couldn't trust leaving them here. What if some group of morons stole them? What if the thieves couldn't bring it with them and trashed their motorcycles? Yazoo's face darkened from the thought.

"We'll just bring a bigger boat," Loz said. He walked out of the building with medicine bottles and bandages.

"How much do we have on us?" Yazoo asked, cleaning his gun again.

Loz knelt down in front of Theris and lifted her left leg. "The old man in there said he'll give us a discount since we got an injured woman here."

The redhead pushed Loz's head away with her hand. "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, moving her legs from his reach. Her legs ached when she did though and she moaned in pain.

He grabbed her left leg again. "I'm just going to help them so they won't hurt you so much," he growled angrily.

"…" She pouted.

He took off her boots and rolled her bloodstained pants up. Her legs were blue-purple, dried blood around her knees. Loz mumbled angrily at the sight, opening the bottles and getting the strips of bandages ready.

She slightly blushed, feeling uncomfortable about a man touching her. This was her first time ever having the opposite sex touching her bare legs. But what kind of man would do that? Although her legs were not in their best shape, it only made it more embarrassing for her. She looked away, closing her eyes. She did not want to see Loz touching her legs.

"Did that hurt?" Loz asked.

She opened her eyes and glanced at him. "…Yes, now stop touching me," she said, pulling her leg away.

He sighed, gently grabbing it again without hurting her. "You'll just have to get use to it. I will be changing the bandages from time to time," he told her. "Yazoo, let me borrow that cloth you're using."

"Clean it neatly when you're done using it," Yazoo said with a sigh. He threw it over to Loz and he caught it. Loz had begun wiping off some of the dried blood on Theris's legs.

"Why are you even helping, Loz?" she asked, leaning her upper body forward. "Why do you _even_ care?"

He looked up at her. It did not really cross his mind why he would do it. "…Shut your mouth," he said, going back bandaging her. He was not going to even think about why.

Yazoo and Kadaj looked at the two of them, silent.

"So," Yazoo turned to Kadaj. "Did you call Zack for tips for crossing the ocean? We could get lost out there."

"I'm not calling that father wannabe," Kadaj said, glaring. He crossed his arms and quickly turned away, smiling now. "We'll survive on our own, with _or_ without him."

"We already got information from the old man inside," Loz said. "We don't need to call Zack about it. We'll be fine on our own from here."

Yazoo eyed Kadaj's back, giving him a blank look.

Loz carefully finished wrapping her legs and pulled Theris's pants back down, throwing the bottles to the side. He helped her put her boots back on and turned to Kadaj and Yazoo.

"Don't litter," Theris said, in a mother's tone. "Pick the bottles up and throw them away properly."

He sighed heavily, glaring at her. He did as he was told, picking them up and entered the building to find a wastebasket. He might as well go wash Yazoo's cloth too.

"He's getting softer," Kadaj grinned.

Yazoo chuckled. "That's just because this woman is injured. He probably doesn't want to anger her since she's already in pain."

Theris gave the two boys a look. "My name is Theris, not 'girl'," she said.

Yazoo put his gun away. "You keep calling us 'boys' so I'm calling you 'girl'."

"Are you looking for a fight?"

"Of course not. You're not in the condition to."

She glared at Yazoo who grinned back at her.

Loz walked back outside with a grumpy expression. "The old man said that he will drive us to the shore where a bigger boat is…" he said, slowly trailing off in his sentence. "But what are we supposed to do with our motorcycles? We can't bring them along with us."

"Why not leave it with the man?" Theris suggested.

Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were silent. Anything could happen to their beloved bikes if they left them here.

"That's what I said," the man's voice said. An old rusted pale blue truck drove slowly from the right side of the building. "I can't let you guys use a bigger, bigger boat. This is business, you know? I have a cellar down the basement. No one come here nowadays so it should be safe."

The three guys were silent again, thinking.

"What, you think I can't protect them?" the man asked, glaring at them. "Fine, leave them out here."

Yazoo looked at Kadaj. "I say we leave it in the cellar," he said.

"Ugh, fine," Kadaj nodded. "But if anything happens to them…"

"It'll be fine," the man assured. "Now hurry up. It will take about three to four weeks to reach the Dark Mist Town with my boats since the ocean's tides are pretty strong. A storm will be coming soon too. It happens once a month in the middle of the ocean. You guys said you're going there, right? You guys in a hurry?"

"Yeah," Loz replied.

"Then I suggest we leave now," the man said. Then he looked at Yazoo's gun. "Maybe you should leave that behind too."

Yazoo looked at his gun. "You mean this?"

The man nodded. "There's this rumor about a bitch running around in the Dark Mist Town, destroying every gun she sees and beating up the owner of the weapon. It has been going on for a year now and ever since then, guns aren't allowed there because of the damage she causes. Although, it ain't against any rules to bring a gun along…"

Theris laughed, "What? There's no one to stop her? Who's the mayor there?"

"Nobody," the man said. "It's a town where you can do anything you want… if you can, that is."

Yazoo smirked, pointing his gun in the air. "I would like to meet this bitch," he said. "I want to see just how she can destroy this while I'm holding it."

"Why is she doing that kind of thing for?" Loz asked, curious.

The man shrugged. "I heard from a person, who lived there once and came over to this side across the ocean. He said she is dressed somewhat like a samurai."

"Heh, samurai?" Kadaj grinned. "That can be why. She's brainwashed by her samurai-ness and thinks that her duty is to get rid of the guns."

Yazoo and Loz chuckled.

Theris sighed, rolling her eyes. "Men these days…" She just did not find Kadaj's statement very funny.

The man got out of the truck and grinned. "The name's Bennett," he introduced himself. "Okay, let's start putting those bikes away and start our little journey across the ocean, shall we?"


	10. The Spying Idea

**Chapter 10: The Spying Idea**

Kiku stumbled to the ground at the entrance of an unknown town.

Two days had passed since she left Yuffie on her own. She was trying to get away from Sephiroth. She attempted to teleport away but he would always grab her and the both of them always ended up together. They had been fighting all this time. She looked up at the setting sun in the town full of pink colors.

"Must… hide…" she tiredly stood up and started walking on the pink brick road. "Geez, I sound like a coward." She made a face.

After a while, Sephiroth walked through the entrance of the town full of pink. The buildings were pink, the road was pink, the leaves on the brown trees were pink, and many more.

"This must be Pink Town," he assumed, walking and looking around. "Now… where did she run off to?"

Sephiroth walked past a market square with some people walking around. Villagers shopped at various merchants. He started to wonder if Lazard was around here or not and continued to look around.

"Who was that girl with the white hair?" a woman asked her friend. She had brown hair that reached to her shoulders and brown eyes.

They walked pass Sephiroth and he stopped, glancing over his shoulders.

"Probably just one of those old woman with a young face," the other woman said. Her brown hair was very short and she had darker brown eyes. "Besides… what I find very odd was that red tattoo on her right eye. It must have been difficult to get it on that sensitive skin."

Sephiroth turned to them. "Where did you see that girl?" he questioned.

The two women looked at him with questioning expressions. They wore brown dresses. The woman with the very short hair pointed the way. "Well, we were over there and that girl with the white hair entered the inn," she said.

Sephiroth looked where she was pointing. It was a tall building with no windows and more pink. The sign on it read: Inn.

"She seemed tired," the second woman said. "So I guess she's staying there for the night."

He nodded at them. "Thank you," he turned towards the building.

"Was it okay to tell him?" the first woman asked as they walked off.

The other nodded. "It's not like he's going to attack her, right? This town is made to prevent any kind of harm and violence after all," she said, smiling.

"Oh yeah," the first laughed. "I'm new to this place so I sort of forgot…"

Sephiroth entered the in through the front door. A man with a blue hat and black sunglasses sat behind the counters, sitting on a chair. "May I help you?" the man asked.

"I'm just here to look for someone," Sephiroth replied, scanning around the room. The inside of this building was not pink. The tables and chairs were brown, the wooden floor was black, and the walls were gray.

"Well," the man leaned back on his chair. "This inn closes in about two hours. You'll have to leave here by then if you don't plan on staying."

Sephiroth eyed him. "Have you seen a young girl with white hair?" he asked.

The man grinned. "Sorry, I got paid a lot of gil not to give any type of information of that person's whereabouts," he said, giving Sephiroth a hint.

Sephiroth walked off and headed up the stairs. He searched through the open rooms. He listened to the closed one. There were voices but not one that sounded familiar. He continued his search on the upper floors.

"You have fifteen minutes," the man behind the counter said when Sephiroth walked back down the stairs.

Sephiroth noticed one of the doors that lead downstairs and walked toward it. He stepped down the gray stoned stairway, looking around when he had a view of how the lower floor looked like. He stepped on the last step of the stairs.

There were four hallways from where he was standing. The walls were poorly painted with black, dim lights were set on the ceilings and leading the way down the paths. The floors were quite dusty and the way it looked, no one seemed to have cleaned it for a while now. There were wood chips lying around, some trash, and spider webs.

He was curious to explore further and walked through the hallway to his far left. The walls had scratches here and there. He wondered why there were not a lot of people down here. There were people walking around in the in on the other higher floors. Perhaps there was nothing down here that anyone would want to check out.

Down the hallway he was walking through, there was only one door at the end of the hallway. His footsteps echoed silently and he breathed softly. The air on the lower floor was getting colder. Compared to the upper floors filled with rooms and people, it was more pleasant.

He entered the room and stared at the girl on the bed.

Kiku was lying on a big white bed with no pillows, sleeping. The white blanket was not over her, only lying beside her. She lay on her right side, her head rested on her right arm, her other hand touching her lips, and her legs bent forward. She breathed softly.

Sephiroth walked over to her and took a good look at the red mark over her right eye. It looked more like a tattoo. He stared at her for a moment and scanned the room.

The lights in the room were brighter than the ones in the halls. The only thing in the room was an empty desk.

He turned back to Kiku. He could not help but smile. She looked like a normal teenager, not someone determined to rule the world. What were her motives?

Taking a step back, he decided to let her sleep. Attacking her while she was sleeping did not seem right and Pink town did not allow violence. Since the Zetsumei did not attack anyone here, he should do the same.

He grinned and reached for the white blanket. He covered her small body. The air was cold after all but he was not sure if she _could_ feel hot or cold, considering that she was an Undead but he did it anyway.

Then he left the room.

After a long moment, Kiku clutched her eyes as if she was in pain. "Minerva…" she mumbled angrily. She opened her eyes and looked at the blanket over her with puzzle eyes. "Eh…? Did I sleep-move and put this over me?"

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

Sephiroth stepped out of the inn. The man behind the counter asked, "Aren't you going to stay here for the night?"

The long silver haired man looked over his shoulder to him. "I don't have any gil with me," Sephiroth responded. He walked down the road, as the night grew nearer.

He stared up at the dark green sky, slowly walking around the empty area between buildings. There were clouds that cover most of the skies. He wondered if there was a moon if the clouds were going to be clear tonight.

"Sephiroth, glad to see that you made it here so fast," a familiar voice came from behind him.

Sephiroth causally turned around and faced Angeal's clone. "…Director Lazard, was it?" he asked. He did not have the chance to inquire what happen to Lazard when he had betrayed Shinra and who had been funding Hollander's experiments. Zack had given a quick info about what happen to Lazard but Sephiroth wanted it to be clearer. "Angeal's clone?"

He walked up to Sephiroth, smiling. "It's… a long story," he said. "Not worth mentioning. By the way, how did you get here so fast?"

"I ran," Sephiroth replied. "I was just following that girl with the red mark over her right eye and we teleported from various places and then ended up here."

"Oh…" Lazard slowly nodded.

"Are we going to stay here for a while?" Sephiroth asked.

Lazard nodded. "There's nowhere else where we can be. We'll just have to wait until everyone is ready to return to the Firefly Light Village."

"Isn't there something more that I can do?" Sephiroth inquired. He just couldn't stay here and wait. He felt like he should do something. Staying in a town like this was hurting his eyes by the minute.

Lazard thought for a moment. "Is that girl still here?"

Sephiroth nodded, "She's sleeping at some inn."

"…Why don't you keep an eye on that girl with the gray skin for a while then?" he suggested. "In this kind of place, maybe you can ask her some questions about her motives... that is, if she plans to stay here for a long time. It's the perfect chance."

"It's not like she's taking a vacation here," Sephiroth said, looking away. "An enemy would never give information to the other party. I can't use violence here if I wanted to force her to."

"Sephiroth," Lazard crossed his arms. "I want you to try to ask her questions. I got a call from Zack a while ago and he requested that I should look after the people who are from the other world here for the time being."

"Why can't you do it?"

Lazard looked at Sephiroth's expression, whose eyes were still looking somewhere else. He seemed like he did not want to take on the task on being the information gatherer. "If we switch jobs, will you be able to handle the kids?" Lazard asked, chuckling. "Apparently, they like my wing and want to play tomorrow. How will you be able to take my place?"

Sephiroth silently looked back at Lazard.

"All you have to do is keep an eye on her if you don't want to talk to her," Lazard told him. "We could call it 'spying' because she might even have more friends out there. We need to know more about them."

"…Fine," Sephiroth said. He bitterly thought to himself about Kiku and turned his back to Lazard. "I'll stay near the inn and keep an 'eye' on her."

"Sephiroth, wait," Lazard said. "Let's go buy you a cell phone first. I just saw a store that sells some. I'm sure it's still open. We'll be able to contact each other about the progresses from everyone else."

Sephiroth remembered that he did not have one and turned back to him. "Alright," he nodded. "By the way, Lazard… how did you get here?"

He shrugged. "I'm not so sure. Someone must have teleported me and all the people here," he said. "I'm not sure who the person was. Anyway, let's go and get you a cell phone. It's getting late."


	11. The Nonstop Pursuit

**NOTE:** There will be (long) delays in updating now because college life for me is back again. Hope you understand… if there is anyone reading anyway. XD

* * *

**Chapter 11: The Nonstop Pursuit**

"Angeal! She's coming from behind!" Genesis warned, griping his sword.

Angeal turned quickly. He and Purge clashed with their blades in the midair. "Aren't you getting tired of chasing after us yet?" Angeal narrowed his eyes at her. She did not reply and held her ground.

Vincent was hiding with Yuffie behind a tree of the Firefly Forest, making sure that Purge would not attack from anywhere. _Tsk, three days passed since Cloud and the others went their separate ways_. He thought to himself. They would not be able to get anywhere as long as the assassin was following them.

Genesis ran and jumped into the air towards the assassin.

She bit her lower lip and swiftly pushed against Angeal's sword and jumped back to distance herself from the two men. _They're pretty strong…_ she lowered her head to hide her face. _So this is the power of the first class Soldiers… but I don't think I've seen anything yet._ What she knew of them came only from old rumors.

It seemed she made a mistake facing them two days ago. When she noticed Angeal and the others were still in the village, she wanted to attack while they were sleeping, but Vincent heard her and stopped her. Her skills as an assassin were starting to rust up.

Genesis and Angeal looked at the young woman and glanced at each other.

"If we don't kill her, she'll just keep coming at us," Genesis said. He had been reasoning this idea to Angeal since yesterday but Angeal refused that way of thinking. "We're only going to fall behind if we don't hurry up."

Angeal grunted, "No, Genesis."

"I don't have to listen to you, you know?" Genesis smirked. His eyes fixed on the hooded woman. "She's just a cold-blooded creature who needs to be put down."

Angeal narrowed his eyes at Purge, bringing down his sword. "Can we talk for a moment?" he inquired.

She silently waited to see if one of them would jump towards her.

With a sigh of relief, Angeal withdraw his sword behind his back. "Purge… is your name, right?" he asked. "Are you from the other world?"

She did not respond.

"If you are…" Angeal gestured to where Vincent and Yuffie were. "There's really no reason for you to be after Yuffie, right? You can't return with her head to get your payment from the person who asked you to kill Yuffie from that other world."

"Are you saying that I should wait?" Purge inquired, using a hissing voice.

Genesis smirked, "So you're really from the other world then. Yuffie's head would rot before you could find a way back."

Purge's weapons disappeared and she crossed her arms. "You guys have a point there," she nodded to herself. "That person wanted me to bring her head nice and fresh. …Now that I think about, I could have already killed Kisaragi and she could have joined the Lifestream already. When I saw her here, I only thought why she was alive."

"Yes, she was already dead," Angeal said. "It's only natural to see her in the Lifestream, in this world."

Vincent carried Yuffie in his arms and walked to the threesome. "You mean… she's really dead?" he asked.

"Seems that way," Genesis said, looking over his shoulders to him.

"I killed her once," Purge nodded to herself again. "And she doesn't have the same wounds I gave her that time. She moved around like nothing more than a few days ago. Yes, she is dead for sure." She smirked and uncrossed her arms. "I guess I already completed my mission, but what am I do to…? Her body must be rotting in the other world by now."

Vincent lightly glared at Purge. "Who told you to assassinate her?" he demanded. He knew it was Purge who killed Yuffie, but the person behind the scene should be the one responsible for this in the first place.

"I've been paid the first half to not give that person's name," Purge said. "Sorry, but it's my job. If you triple the price, I'll tell you."

"Money freak," Genesis assumed aloud.

Purge ignored him and turned to Angeal. "I've heard about your mission back in the village," she said. "Have you guys thought of a way back to the other world? I need to rush back there."

"You mean you eavesdropped," Genesis said.

"No," Angeal shook his head lightly. "Not a clue yet."

She nodded slowly. "Then…"

"Can't you just teleport there to the other world?" Genesis questioned. "Why don't you do that instead of wasting your time with us?"

"I don't think I can," she replied. "I'm not confident enough to try it out. If it is all right… may I come along with you guys? I want to go back as soon as possible."

The three men were quiet.

"I won't be in the way," she said, assuring them. "I'll stand more than one mile from you guys."

"I'm only afraid that you might attack us when we're not looking," Genesis said, smirking.

"Aren't you a chicken," she said in a monotone voice. "We've already settled things about Kisaragi. There's nothing to fear."

"You're talking too much," Genesis pointed his blade at her. "I didn't think you were so talkative until now."

Angeal lightly pushed Genesis's hand away. "You may come with us as you please," he told her.

"What, Angeal?" Genesis glanced at him, irritated.

"I will make sure I won't bother you guys," Purge nodded. "I will try not to annoy that guy in red by talking either."

Angeal nodded.

Vincent heard Yuffie moaning and looked at her. She slowly opened her eyes. "Ow… where am I?" she quietly asked. When she saw Vincent, being in his arms, she let out a loud cry. She jumped off and fell on the ground, hitting her head and back. "Ow!"

"Yuffie," Vincent kneeled down to her. "You're finally awake."

He helped her sit up. "Geez…" she moaned. "Why am I aching all over…? Oh…" She remembered the wound on her back and in her right arm. She just hit her head and it was also hurting.

"How are you feeling?" Vincent asked in a caressing tone.

"Just fine, thank you," she said, not looking him in the eye. She rubbed the back of head with a pout. _Damn… I should have stayed in my other form so I can heal faster…_ She thought, annoyed with her human body.

When Yuffie saw Purge she backed away a little bit. "You can relax," Purge said. "I already killed you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yuffie gave the hooded girl a dry expression.

"Let's move on," Angeal said. "We're behind schedule already." He was glad he had things cleared up with Purge. Now they would not have to worry about being chased down.

Genesis followed behind him.

Vincent held his hand to Yuffie. "You're still not in any condition to move around so I'll carry you," he said.

She stared at his hand for a moment and then at him. "…A piggyback ride?" she asked, her eyes shining with hope.

"If you want," he said, half smiling.

She nodded. He turned his back to her and she got on him. As he stood up, she asked, "Hey, why are you being so nice to someone like me?"

He began to walk. "We're friends… aren't we?"

With a paused, she thought about it. _…We are?_ She asked herself.

Purge stood where she was, staring at Yuffie's back. She could not help but wonder if she really was dead or not. The only thing that confused her was why did Yuffie have gray skin, but now it was normal. "I should keep an eye on her," she decided.

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

Reno and Rude stepped out of room that was numbered two-zero-nine and closed the door. They were in the hospital, checking up on someone. They were ordered to do that everyday since the day when red Lifestream had appeared in their world.

"How is she?" a woman's voice asked.

Rude looked to his left, looking under his sunglasses. Shelke and Shalua stood a yard away from them. "Nothing changed," Rude replied.

Reno sighed heavily. "Yep, no sign of change at all," he repeated tiredly and looked at Rude. "Why are we even ordered to come here daily? Don't we Turks have something more important to do? It has been more than a week since Cloud and his friends disappeared."

Rude crossed his arms, feeling rather worried about it as well. "Tseng already made it clear, didn't he?" he questioned. "She might be able to help us if she regains consciousness. There's no other clue out there for us to figure it out right now. You understand that, right?"

Reno shook his head in frustration. "I'm going to get something to drink," he said, walking away hurriedly.

"I'm going to see how she's doing," Shalua said, turning the doorknob open. Shelke followed her sister inside.

Rude watched them enter and went after Reno.

Shelke and Shalua stood beside the bed, looking at the status of the Shinra's technology. A lot of wires were spread around the room with soft beeping sounds. Shelke looked down at the person on the bed with a sad expression.

Yuffie lay under the white sheets with the wires under them. She was breathing and her heartbeat was beating, but they were really weak. Despite that she should be dead by now, her body was not rotting and had not been for more than a whole week. Her skin was a bit pale, but her face still showed a sign of life in her.

It was the most mysterious thing.

"Yuffie Kisaragi…" Shelke murmured. "What happened to you?"


	12. The Upcoming Storm

**Chapter 12: The Upcoming Storm**

Theris quietly listened to the waves around the pale yellow boat. It was early in the morning and Bennett had just started to sail after he woke up. It has been three days since they left Daddy's Boats.

Then she heard heavy footsteps and turned her head to her right.

"What are you doing out here?" Loz sat across from Theris. The two of them were in the back of the boat sitting on the edge. "Feeling sea sick?"

Theris glared at him for seeing right through her. "Only a little bit," she said. "Yuffie's the one who can't really handle it if she was here."

"Why are you mentioning her? I thought you hated her," he said, observing her reactions.

She looked across the water and up at the sky. "Yeah," she said. "I do, but you know what? I still like the childhood experiences she gave me. I cherish the old Yuffie very much." She sharply turned her head to him. "What are you doing here so early in the morning anyway?"

Loz rubbed the back of his head, moving one of his eyebrows higher than the other. "No reason," he replied. "…Did you crawl your way here?"

"Of course not!" she slapped the back of his head. "Bennett helped me."

"You let him touch you?" he exclaimed, standing up.

She gave him a calm look. "Yeah, did you want me to crawl that bad?"

"You could have asked me," he said, slowly sitting back down on the edge.

"Oh, you want to touch me?" she asked, half glaring at him.

"No!" he said, slightly blushing. "I just think you shouldn't be troubling others! I mean, I wouldn't mind if you ask me… since I didn't come in time to help you at that time…"

She sighed heavily and slapped his head again. "Don't start feeling guilty," she glared at him.

He rubbed the place where she hit him. "What do you…?"

"It wasn't your fault that I got hurt," Theris said, looking at him intensely in the eye. "If you feel like you should help me out every time, well… you don't have to, got that? You just worry about renewing the bandages around my legs, okay? So stop trying to do this and that! It's freaking annoying!"

Loz looked like he was about to cry. "But I…" he started.

She blushed when she noticed a little tear in his left eye. "Oh my god, don't tell you're going to cry again! This is the eleventh time since the first!"

He held back his tears and stared at the ground.

Theris bit her tongue, feeling uncomfortable. She looked away, irritated by each minute. _If my legs weren't like this, I would have walked away many times by now!_ She breathed through her nose, frustrated.

"It's not like I feel guilty about it," Loz mumbled.

"Bennett does a better job than you anyway," she quickly said. "You know, since he told us yesterday that he used to be a 'minor' doctor back in his younger days. If it weren't for him, you wouldn't really know how to keep my legs from hurting. Therefore, he's more useful than you."

Loz sighed in frustration and stood up with an angry grunt. He walked away, heading back to the front of the boat to the door that leads down the boat.

"Hello, Zack?" Kadaj was on the phone. He sat on a wooden chair with his legs on the worn out table.

The cabin was about fifteen feet in both length and width. The only things in this room were a round table in the center, six wooden chairs, and six beds along side of the walls.

Loz glanced to his left. Yazoo was staring off into space, entirely bored with nothing to do. All he was doing was leaning against the wall on his back and arms crossed.

"I thought Kadaj didn't want to call Zack," Loz said, walking up to Yazoo.

Yazoo shrugged. "Since you went up to the deck, he's been trying to get a hold of our father wannabe. I didn't ask why."

Kadaj sighed. "Shut up. Stop talking as if we have been away for too long. How's mother doing?" he asked, concerned.

"That could be why," Yazoo said. He was rather worry about their mother too since Kadaj had told them that she had some kind of weird illness before they left the little village in the forest.

"Oh, right," Loz remembered. He had been too distressed with Theris that he had forgotten his mother. Loz walked up to Kadaj and leaned in to hear the conversation on the phone.

Kadaj stood up, "What do you mean you're not looking after her?!"

"_Calm down_," Zack laughed nervously. "_Cloud's with her. Tifa and I just went to find something to eat out here in the wild_."

"_Zack, there's an apple tree over there_," Tifa's voice was distant. "_I'll go and get some_."

Kadaj and Loz were shock. "Why did you leave brother alone with mother?" Kadaj asked, whispering.

Yazoo's ears picked up and he walked over to huddle and listen to the phone.

"Mom told me that she liked brother," Kadaj said, sounding a bit upset. "More than a LIKE too!"

Zack chuckled. "_What do you mean? Oh, Tifa! There's a monster up in that tree!_"

"Hey, wait a second, you father wannabe!" Kadaj shouted angrily.

"_Sorry, call again later when you get some information_," Zack quickly said. Then he hung up.

The three silver haired guys stood in silence. Kadaj slowly put his cell phone away and looked at Yazoo and Loz with an uncomfortable look. "This is bad," he finally said.

"I know what you mean," Yazoo nodded, rubbing his chin. "Our brother and mother… alone together… and they like each other."

Loz glared and formed his hands into fists. "That's just wrong! What if our brother makes a move on mother? That's… that's…!"

"Forbidden," Yazoo finished for him.

Kadaj walked around in circles, troubled. "If only I have wings! I would fly over and interrupt them! Damn it!" he said, cursing under his breath. He looked at Yazoo and Loz with determined eyes. "Guys, we have to hurry and get this mission done in the Dark Mist Town! Then after that, we head straight to the capital to meet up with them!"

"How do you plan on stopping them?" Yazoo inquired. As much as he agreed with Kadaj there had to be a bulletproof plan.

"Why don't we pretend to be kidnappers and take mother away?" Loz suggested.

Kadaj shook his head. "No, I got a better idea. You know that girl, Theris, has a thing towards Zack, right? Let's get her and Zack together."

"What?" Yazoo asked. "I thought father wannabe likes mother."

"Let me finish," Kadaj hissed. "Mother likes Zack too right? Let's get her jealous of Theris so that way she'll realize how much she likes Zack. Then she'll tell our brother that she really wants to be with Zack… as much as I dislike him being our father, but it is the only way."

Yazoo nodded, "I see. What do you think, Loz?"

The two stared at Loz's face. He was speechless and shock. His mouth was half open. He realized they were waiting for his reply and he shook his head to snap out of it. "Theris… uh… I'm not sure," he said.

"Do you have any better suggestions?" Kadaj half glared at him. "We still have time to think this over before getting to town, but…"

Loz slightly nodded back and forth. "It's fine, it's fine… we'll go with that plan," he said.

"You don't want Theris to be near Zack, huh?" Yazoo asked, seeing right through him.

"I… no!" Loz said. He turned his back on them. "That's not what I'm thinking about. As if I like that ruthless woman. Speaking of which, she should probably get back inside. Who knows how long she has been out there. She'll catch a cold!" Loz quickly left outside.

Kadaj and Yazoo exchanged empty looks. "Maybe we should go with another plan," Yazoo suggested. "I don't think he wants that girl and that father wannabe together."

"Loz said it was alright," Kadaj protested with a smirk.

"Then how are you going to get the two of them together…?" Yazoo questioned.

He smirked again, "We'll think of something."

The clouds in the sky were starting to gather slowly. Loz stood at the door, staring at the dark sky. It was still in the early morning but he noticed it was not getting any brighter for a while now. He groaned, rubbing the back of his head. He never got used to the green sky in this world. He just felt colorblind.

Then he heard a stomach growling.

He walked around the boat and Theris was blushing in embarrassment. "Do you want something to eat?" he asked, walking up to her with caution. She could hit him at any time. Through passing time, he found out that she didn't like it when people heard her stomach growling. A couple of times she got angry and denied that she were hungry. She even hit people because of it.

"I'm picky about what I eat," she said, avoiding his eyes. She lifted her head to look up at the dark sky. "I think something's wrong with the clouds."

"I think so too," he sighed. "Why don't you come back inside?"

"Bad news!" Bennett shouted. He walked down the little stairs. Up there where he was controlling the boat. "A storm's coming this way!"

"What?" Loz angrily looked at him. "You said the storm wouldn't be coming for a few weeks, didn't you? It was only been two to three days since we left the land!"

"Hey, I ain't God," Bennett stated, walking around to gather equipments. "Go back inside. The wind gets pretty tough and can blow a person off… which would be after an hour."

Loz grabbed Theris in his arms and started to walk off. She called, "What about you Bennet?"

"I'll be fine!" he assured with a wave.

Back down into the small room, Loz set Theris on one of the beds.

"What's wrong?" Kadaj asked. He was back on the chair with his legs on the table. He was bored with nothing to do now. There was round brown bug on the table and he had been torturing it with tiny wooden sticks.

"The man said a storm was heading this way," Loz explained.

"Huh," Yazoo said. He was not sure to take it seriously or not. The wind started to pick up and blowing around them. He went to shut the door close.

Lying on the bed, Theris pulled the blanket over her. Last night she could not sleep because of the pain in her legs. She felt so tired and closed her eyes to take a nap. _I hope the storm will be over by the time I wake up…_ She thought soundly.


	13. The First Love

**Chapter 13: The First Love**

A man stood in the shadows with his arms behind his back, his hand holding the other. He was wearing a black cloak and the hood covered his head. In front of a huge portrait, with a faint light shining through from the tall ceiling, he stared up at it for a long time.

The picture was only pitch black. There was no drawing or painting on it.

"You called me?" another man asked, his footsteps echoing. He walked into the large, empty room and grinned. The colors of his eyes were gray. He seemed about twenty years old. He had a black and red bandana and underneath it was his short red hair. He wore a black sleeveless shirt, a dark gray scarf, black fingerless gloves, brown belt, gray pants, and black boots. Around his left shoulder to his elbow was a large tattoo. It had pink flowers and in the background was a like a wave, which was in blue and white. There was a scar that looked like the letter 'Y' on his left cheek.

The man in the black cloak turned around. He had no face. Under that hood was like a night sky with stars that seemed to draw you in. "Keisuke," he said in a low voice, which sounded young, "Where is Chrysanthemum? I have not seen her for approximately a week now."

Keisuke smirked as he shrugged. "Who knows? Weren't you the one who set her free?" he asked, chuckling.

He looked back at the empty frame and still had his arms behind him. "Tell her to return here," he ordered emotionlessly.

"Gotcha," Keisuke smiled. He bowed and turned around. His body glowed in red and he teleported out of the dark room.

He reappeared in a wide shadowy area. The red Lifestream was flowing under his knees, moving slowly like an ocean's wave. He looked around, crossing his arms. There was a brighter red light shining out from the ground to his far left. He smiled and walked towards it.

-\\\\\\\\\\-//////////-

A white pigeon with bright pink eyes was on sale and unwanted by many. That was what the seller told Kiku and it was on a high price. It had been three days since she came into this town.

Kiku kneeled down at the rusted small cage that held the white pigeon. She felt attracted to it ever since yesterday. She had stared at it for more than three hours when she first saw it. Today, she would probably stare at it again for another few hours.

"Please, will you just buy it?" the old woman pleaded. She wore a long blue old dress, matching her blue eyes. Her gray hair tied back into a low ponytail. "Looking isn't for free, you know?"

She did not respond and gazed into the pigeon's bright pink eyes.

"Do you like the bird, Chrysanthemum?" Keisuke suddenly appeared right beside her.

"Oh, buy it for her, will you?" the old woman said, smiling.

For a moment, Kiku blinked twice. Then she turned her head to Keisuke. "Who are you?" she inquired.

He smiled with a light chuckle. "Keisuke," he said. "I'm also your family. We're not really related, but we share the same some sort of destiny."

"Keisuke?" she questioned as she stood up. "You're also an Undead?"

The old woman grumbled, knowing that the two probably would not buy the pigeon.

"Yep," he nodded, standing up as well. "I prefer my human form more than my Undead one." He glanced over his shoulder, feeling a familiar aura. He grinned and firmly faced where the person was hiding behind at the corner of the next building. "Hey, Chrysanthemum! I think you got yourself a stalker!"

Sephiroth backed away from Keisuke's sight. _He found me out, huh._ He thought, quietly stood still.

"It's just Sephiroth," Kiku said with a light shrug. "He's been following me since yesterday."

"You knew?" Keisuke asked, looking back at her. "You just let this 'Sephiroth' stalk you for two days?"

Sephiroth sighed. _I'm not a stalker._ It was all Lazard's idea. Sephiroth glanced out of the corner, knowing that the guy with the bandana was no longer looking this way. "He's an Undead too… huh?" he wondered out loud.

"He can stalk all he wants," she said. She spun around quickly and walked off.

He followed her. "Hey, wait for me, Chrysanthemum!"

The color of the Pink Town was starting to annoy Kiku. It was a pale color, made not to hurt people's eyes, it seemed, but it gave her a headache. She knew a place where there would be less pinkness. She had seen it once when she was wandering around aimlessly last night.

"…First love."

Keisuke looked at Kiku. "…Wha?"

She sighed, "What did your first love feel like? I'm curious."

He paused. It was pretty random. The two of them were walking pass some people on the road and one of them gave them a look when she mentioned about first love.

"Did you fall for someone?" he grinned. She did not say anything and only kept her eyes ahead of them. He chuckled. "Well… it really depends. If you like a stud, you'll go crazy for him. If he's a gentleman, the love won't last. Hah, that's just my opinion so don't take it seriously."

"I asked about _you_," she glanced at him. She was tired and not feeling engaged in this conversation. "How did you feel towards your first love?"

Another moment of silence, but longer. "I'm still in love with her," he finally said, smiling.

They made a turn to a large lake that was sparking. It might take more than thirty minutes to walk around the lake. People were smiling and playing around the empty space under some big pink trees. Kiku noticed some couples holding hands and wondered if it was normal to do that with anyone.

"I heard from an experienced woman say that first love never works," she said. "Why are you still in love with your first?"

He rubbed his chin, thinking. _Experienced woman? Who's that?_ He wondered. "Well. It's because she tries so hard not to fall for me. She may be a bit bitchy but I just want her to return my feelings." He laughed cheerfully for a second. "She's just… became really special to me ever since I met her."

"I don't really understand that," she said. She stopped walking and looked at the water.

"Of course you don't," Keisuke said, putting his elbow on her right shoulder. "You did just wake up, remember?"

She silently pouted. "I… liked to feel what its like," she softly said.

"But why all of the sudden?" he inquired. "…You did fall for someone, didn't you?"

"Not really," she said, crossing her arms. She thought about Sephiroth but thinking how annoying he was, it had nothing to do with liking him. "I'm not sure if I even like him."

"Hehe," he snickered. "Why don't you try going out on date?"

She looked up at him. "A… date?" she asked.

He nodded. "Uh-huh. If you feel something funny in your chest, that's love."

"It sounds too simple," she said. She did not understand it even more. It was just strange.

"Hey, some things _are_ simple," he said, patting on her back. "Go for it. I'll be rooting for you."

"You're going to sit back and watch me?" she questioned. She would feel rather embarrassed if he was with her while she was asking some guy on a date.

"Alright, I won't," he smirked. "You must be the shy type then, huh?"

She looked away from him with an irritated expression. "I don't know about that," she said. It was not as if she were shy. It was called _privacy_.

"I actually came to see you to tell you something," he told her. "But I'll wait until you're done. Good luck!" He gave her a thumps up and hurried off, his black scarf flying behind him.

She stood silently as she watched him leave her sight. "Weird person," she thought out loud. "Why did he have leave now though? Am I supposed to start asking that man right away?"

Sephiroth was behind one of the big trees. He thought this was a waste of time. These 'enemies' to the world did not seem to be serious about anything at all. At first he thought since the two of them were Undead, they might talk about something that could give him a clue. As if. They already knew that he was following them.

"Sephiroth," Kiku walked up to the tree where he was standing behind. "Can we talk?"

"No use in hiding," he mumbled to himself. He walked to his right and turned to the white haired girl.

"Let's go on a date."

He stared at her, expressionless. He was not smiling or frowning. Just expressionless.

"Only for an hour," she quickly said, looking at him in the eye. "I want to test it out. The _weird_ feeling in my chest."

"…Why would I do that?" he questioned, shaking his head.

She thought for a second. "We're enemies, right?" she asked. "If you go on a date with me for an hour, I will answer three questions you want to ask of me or my background. Anything would be useful to you and your friends. After the date, that is. Sounds fair?"

That got his attention, but he hesitated. "…Alright, fine," he agreed. "Where do you want to go?"

"You're the man here," she said, glaring up at him. "You decide."

"I actually never had been on a date before."

"You're boring," she hissed, sharply looking to her right at the lake.

He gave her a bothered look. No one ever called them that before. Genesis and Angeal might have hinted it before though. "Then you think of something," he said. "You're the one who asked me out on a date first."

"True," she sharply looked back at him. "I never went on a date with anyone either anyway. It doesn't have to be an hour because you might bore me to death. Let's just take a walk around the lake."

"Alright," he nodded. "A simple walk is fine."

"Okay," she glared, unsatisfied.

The two of them begin walking around the lake. They were quiet for a long time. He only walked beside her about a foot away. She was confused about the feeling in her chest. It just felt emptied. She hated not feeling anything. She looked at the other couples who were holding hands.

"Hey, hold my hand," she demanded, holding it up to him. "It might trigger something."

He sighed heavily. He slowly reached for her hands and touched her fingers. He looked at her and she looked back at him with an upset look. He grabbed her hand and let them swing between them. "Trigger? What are you trying to achieve by doing this?" he inquired. He overheard their childish conversation about first love, but why was she so interested about it?

"None of your business," she said, turning her head away.

There was another long silence. Kiku could not think of anything else and silently held his hand. What _was_ she trying to achieve by doing this? Her friend told her about first love just after she was released from her long slumber. It was the first thing she learned about and she was very curious about it. She wanted to experience it once.

Her head blanked out as she recalled back to yesterday when her friend came to check up on her.

-\\\\\\\\\\-**FLASH BACK**-//////////-

Kiku was sitting on top of an abandon rusted pink building, looking up at the dark green sky. She had just come back from staring at the pigeon and was resting until it got darker.

There were footsteps behind her and Kiku knew who it was. _Good evening, Chrysanthemum._ A voice echoed in her head in a cheerful voice. Her voice sounded like an older woman.

The white haired girl smiled. She didn't turn around because she knew woman was using her ability so people would not see her. _Good evening, Devi._ She greeted back in her thoughts.

A chuckle ringed in her ears. _I haven't been away that long and you got yourself a stalker?_ She asked.

Across ten buildings away, Sephiroth was hiding himself.

She shrugged. _He can follow me as long as he wants._ She blinked. _Hey, Devi, what are you doing right now?_ She asked.

_Well…_ she said. _Just making more Image Weapons really. That's my only job that I was given. I decided to take a quick break and see how you were doing._

Kiku smiled. _Thanks._

_Feeling lonely?_ She teased.

_I had always been._ She replied. She quickly changed the subject. _Yuffie should be heading your way sooner or later. When she does, please take care of her in my place. She's too reckless._

_Alright._ The woman said. _Sorry for leaving to soon. I should head back before anything explode without my supervision._

Kiku slightly nodded. _Come talk to me again later._

_I will, my mistress, Chrysanthemum._ The voice faded away.

"…Mistress, huh?" she closed her eyes, enjoying the cool wind.

-\\\\\\\\\\-**END OF FLASH BACK**-//////////-

Sephiroth let Kiku's hand go and she snapped out of her mind. "We already walked around the lake," he said.

She glared at the ground and slowly at him. "My god, you're _really_ boring," she said.

"On to business," he said, crossing his arms. "You promised me three questions, right?"

She nodded. "Yes, even if you were so boring."

He rubbed his chin, thinking. He had to make sure he carefully chooses the limited questions he was given. She waited, staring at the lake. "What is the red Lifestream?" he questioned.

"It's called the Deathstream, I think," she replied, her eyes still on the shining water. "That's what I was told anyway."

_Deathstream?_ He thought. "Where did it come from?" he asked.

"Me."

"Why are you here?"

"He freed me to work for him," she said.

He paused. "Can't you give me more detailed answers?" he asked, glaring at her.

"Your questions are already up," she glared back at him with her right eye. She turned around. "I guess I should get going then."

"Wait," he said. She kept her back towards him. "Let me ask you a general question."

She sighed, "What is it?"

"Will you still be in town tomorrow?" he inquired.

She turned back to him. She thought for a minute before answering. "I think so," she nodded.

"Let's go on another date."

She stared up at him, surprised. For a second there, she felt a throb in her chest. Was it because he asked her for another date? She was not sure. It was too quick to feel it since she does not know how it felt like. Keisuke did not describe it for her either. "You still have more questions?" she asked with disbeliefs.

"Of course," he replied. "One hour of the date for three questions."

She sighed and looked at him with an uninterested face. "You're really boring though," she said. She mind as well try it again to see if there was a weird feeling. "I'll go with you anyway, but you'll have to think of a place where we would be going to. You know, since you're asking me out this time."

He was unsure where to even take her.

"What, you don't want to anymore?" she asked, upset again. He looked like he had no idea what to do. She stomped the ground with her heavy boots. She did not want to go with him if he was like this.

"I will," he said, assuring her with a smirk. "We'll meet here again at noon, when the sun is directly above us."

She nodded, "Okay, but if you bore me again, I'm only answering you one question."

Sephiroth was going to protest but she teleported away. He stood there and sighed deeply with a bit of frustration. "How am I going to make this less boring?" he wondered out loud, brushing his hand through his hair. He paused and looked at his hand, the one that had held Kiku's warm hand. Even though he was wearing gloves, he could still feel her little hand.

Maybe he should ask Zack for advice for the second date.


End file.
